My Capacitor Went Bad

Last week we went on our annual Family Reunion trip, so for most of the last week I was out of the blogging loop. Now that I am back, I would like to thank all of the many, many faithful readers who let me know that they missed my posts while I was gone.  And by “all of the many, many,” I mean “both,” and by “both,” I mean Carlyn and Kayla. Thanks!

Before I tell you of our adventures on vacation, I will tell you about our misadventure upon returning:  Our AC went out.  We got home and the house was hot. We turned the air down, but it just didn’t seem to be cooling off. Welcome home!  This morning we had our HVAC guy come take a look. He spent about 20 minutes – I spent about $200 – turns out that the “capacitor”had gone bad.  The capacitor is a little doo-hickey that stores energy and keep the energy level where it needs to be to run the equipment.

Strangely, we had turned the thermostat way up to save electricity while we were gone. When we got home and needed to return to our normal energy usage, it was too much, and the capacity couldn’t handle the increase in demand. Basically, the capacitor was worn out, and couldn’t store energy, or keep the energy level where it needed to be.

This is also a perfect description of me on vacation. When I got back, I had had not stored any energy. Reinvigorated? Forget it. It was all I could do to drag myself into work today.  My groove was seriously thrown  off.

I had great intentions of using some of the time to think deep thoughts, do some writing, get a little work done, and up my activity level. Let’s just say my capacitor went bad. Instead, I stayed up too late, slept in too late, ate too much, and stared mindlessly into space.  Yes, it was fantastic.

We had a great time with immediate and extended family. We played games. We read a lot. We saw the new and unnecessary Spiderman. (It was good). We watched fireworks on the 4th. Threw the frisbee. We relaxed a lot.

Remember: This vacation started about 36 hours after FOML2’s wedding reception ended. We were ready for a break.  Word to the wise:  Never plan to leave on vacation 36 hours after your child’s wedding reception.  The first 3 days of vacation are entirely recovery time – and I don’t remember a lot of it.

Also, until children actually become parents themselves, they will never understand what mom and dad go through to take a week off. When you are a kid, you assume that a week off means just that.  The reality is that the week you are taking off doesn’t really go away, it just gets crushed into the days before and after the trip. The result of this impact is near-comatose parents, and children wondering why mom and dad are so boring.

That said, what I remember of the vacation was wonderful. Except for the parts that weren’t. Like this one:

Warning:  The following story is graphic, and if it were made into a movie, it would probably receive an R-rating.

What do you get when you cross a 10-year-old with too much soda, and way too many jalapeño potato chips?  Anyone?  The correct answer is vomit. Spicy vomit.

At 2:00am, I was minding my own business. I was almost done reading my book when I heard yelling coming from one of the bedrooms. That kind of yelling.  I went in just as FOML5 finished throwing up. He had been sharing a bed with his older sister, and realized he was about to lose it – so he turned the other direction, and did his best to avoid soaking his sister and the bed.  About 20% landed on the bedding. (Blankets, bedspread, sheets, etc.)  He managed to expel the other 80% off the side of the bed – I was quite impressed by his efforts.

Oh! Did I mention that the side of the bed was where the kids had stacked the decorative pillows, and my son kept his suitcase and backpack?  Did I mention that they were both wide open?

Yes. Everything he brought with him – his books, clothes, electronics, etc. – were now covered with spicy jalapeño vomit. Did I mention that jalapeño kettle-cooked potato chips kind of re-hydrate after a few hours?

FOML1 jumped into the fray and started cleaning, but the sounds of her gagging almost set me off. My EC was peacefully sleeping upstairs, because she had been fighting a post-reception stomach flu as well. One was enough, thank you.

I finished the last of the 5 loads of laundry (FIVE) at 3:45am.   I was going to use that time to blog about the experience, but I remembered that I had already written a vomit post in real time. (here)  I should point out, that I have been a parent now for over 24 years, and have dealt with plenty of vomit – but this was the worst I have ever experienced.

On the bright side, I did finish reading my book.

The point of this post was not to tell a vomit story, but, I am not back up to full power, and figure it might take another day to wax profound. I do have some good stuff planned for the near future. I promise! my energy will return.

But I sure could use a vacation…