Birthday Facts, Big Finds, and a String of Ranch Malfunctions

Today is Matt’s birthday. Happy cake day Matt!! An interesting fact learned this weekend: Matthew Green has no middle name. I only know one other person without a middle name—and she gave herself one on her birth certificate. Debby Dawn, after her favourite song Delta Dawn. Funny enough, when she later connected with her birth mom and asked why she had no middle name, her mom replied, “You did—it was Dawn.” Crazy.

The day dawned bright and sunny with no wind. Coffees were required, as usual, before I jumped in the shower. It seems the water conservation order has been lifted, with S heading to the city after his morning coffees in Big Brown to buy a new septic pump around 11.

I stayed mostly in the bedroom as the main living area still reeked of smoke. There must have been a backdraft overnight. I tried opening doors twice, ran the fan, and ran diffusers, but nothing really helped.

I wrangled an Amazon return and boxed it up after finishing computer duties. S was back before 12:30, made a sandwich, and caught the news. He’ll install the new pump this afternoon and see if that finally resolves the issue. I tossed a bale of hay to the horses and then headed to town.

First stop was picking up the remaining professional wedding photos I’d had printed, followed by dropping off the Amazon return. Then I picked up a free coffee table—having absolutely no idea how big or heavy it would be. It was a full-on wrestling match to womanhandle it down a driveway, over ice, and into the car. It fit wall-to-wall across the back, leaving just a tiny square of space beside the stack of shopping baskets for Cooper later.

Next stop was Sharon’s to finally return the puzzles and catch up over three chai teas. Big news of the day: Darren is retiring at the end of April. I left three hours later with a couple of new puzzles and a bottle of coffee syrup she wasn’t going to use.

Cooper pickup was next. He cautiously curled into his small available space and was very happy to stretch his legs once we got back to the gate in the +6 weather. S was driving around in the Ranger when I got home. I prepped the dogs’ food, fed them, and took them for a walk as the sun began to set. It cooled quickly without the sun, requiring a brisk pace, hands tucked into sleeves, and hood up.

Back inside, I retreated to the bedroom to write the blog—the house still smelled awful from the smoke. Supper was a quick BBQ burger, after which S headed to the TV room and I settled into Netflix, watching the Bridgerton behind-the-scenes podcast. B came out for a sounding-board chat after another tough review. S popped up briefly to assemble an ice cream fruit bowl, then disappeared back to his TV.

After B left, I finished the podcast (odd but fun seeing everyone visually) and read my very thick book for a while. S attempted the hot tub but found the control panel has now completely quit working so just had a short soak in the warm water.

The ranch seems to be on a streak of bad luck: the microwave repair rendered it completely useless (a new one was finally ordered late last night), the hot tub panel has quit, the car gate opener battery failed shortly after the gate battery itself did weeks ago, and then the septic pump has literally crapped out this weekend.

Here’s hoping the bad luck streak ends soon. But is seems the new septic pump is working :)