Limping along…and a little deaf

This describes so much of my life right now.

First off, the Computer:  I have resurrected my computer for the short term.  The components are definitely…off.  I could spend time and effort and money bringing the computer fully back to life, but I’ve decided to go for the more expensive route and buy a new laptop.  Right now I’ve brought my machine back up enough to retrieve some files that were missing as well as to do the basic light browsing and various tasks that I need to do.  I’m also debating on adding another layer to my two prong backup system that I have now:  the offsite backup.  Contenders in the running are the well publicized Mozy and Carbonite.   I’m still looking at others.

Secondly, pellets.  It’s that time of year again.  Time to stock up on wood pellets for the pellet stove in our living room.  I didn’t end 2008 with quite as much surplus as I did in 2007, so I had to buy the full amount of pellets that I’m forecasting for the winter.  This year we’re going for 5 pallets of wood pellets, and they were all delivered yesterday.  That’s five tons of wood pellets that I need to move from my detached garage where they were dropped off into my basement.  So far I’ve moved about 20 bags.  Out of 250.

Thirdly, my daughter.  Today my daughter was….challenging.  We’ve been working on giving her choices and consequences.  Usually she gets to chose between two alternatives, and we try to make it very clear that it’s one or the other.  For the most part she’s been doing ok with the process.  She might kick up a little bit of a fuss for a minute or two, but she usually accepts the path that she’s taken after only a minimum of cajoling.

Today…today not so much.  Today she wanted ALL the choices.  And if we did not give her all the choices, She Would Have Words With Us.  Those words would be delivered with force, with vigor, and with a decibel rating that would rival a jet airplane.

Dinner time was the worst.  Dinner tonight was some homemade chicken soup, served with a shrieking chorus of “I NEVER CHICKEN SOUP!  I NEVER CHICKEN SOUP RIGHT NOW!  I DON’T LIKE IT!   I WANT PEANUT BREAD!” (The latter is peanut butter on bread).

Twenty minutes of howling and fussing and complaining and a very extended Time Out.  Twenty minutes of trying to enforce the “We Eat Dinner Together” mantra.  Twenty minutes of kicking and wailing and putting up all manner of fuss.  Twenty Minutes that culminated in an extended Time Out, which didn’t even really begin until she was calm enough to hear us say that she was in timeout.

Little by little she calmed down.  Silence roared in like an ocean wave.

Finally, timeout was over.  She crawled up on her chair, examined the lukewarm bowl of soup sitting there, and to our utter incredulity, lifted the spoon without hint or request and tried the soup.

“Mmmmm…Soup!”

You could have knocked my poor battered body over with a feather.

In any case, it’s late.  I’ve already checked on the status of my laptop for the 10th time today.  I’m going to bed.