Thursdays Suck
I suspect that many people, probably the same ones who invented Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF), have felt that Mondays are the day of the week that sucks the most. Needless to say, this likely has mostly to do with the need to go back to work or school come Monday, and the fact that that represents an obligation rather than a desire. There are plenty of songs and accolades to Saturday and Sunday and even “Mike, Mike, Mike…” brought a new-found fame to Wednesday through the creation of Hump Day. Prior to that, all I knew to attribute to Wednesday comes from an old New England advertisement for Prince Spaghetti, where this kid is called by his mother in an urban setting and he is seen running here and there across Boston when the announcer states in no uncertain terms that Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day. Who knew? I’m guessing that since pasta is a very regional business versus a national or international business, that designation for Wednesday is probably only known across New England or by people like me who passed through New England at some point in their lives.
That has left Tuesday and Thursday as the odd men out in the week that have precious little to commend them. They don’t really even get the scorn foisted on Monday, so they live in that oblivion of making it through the drudgery of the week. But wait, someone somewhere, either Taco John’s, who holds the trademark since 1989, or Baker’s Drive-through since 1967…and they are both in none other than California… came up with Taco Tuesday. I had heard the term, but realized that it was a real thing when I learned that my daughter does Taco Tuesday every week for her daughters. That legitimized the day to me as much as anything could. But what then is left for Thursday? The name comes from the Viking traditions and comes from Thor’s Day, which means it is supposed to be a day of Thunder and Lightning. Few people know about that, I imagine, and its not exactly a Taco Tuesday, is it?
A few years ago, I started hearing from my kids that the new big go-out night of the week had become Thursday. I guess that’s another way of saying that Friday had become the new Saturday and that young people were pushing the weekend forward such that they would go out and party on BOTH Thursday and Friday nights….not to mention Saturday night. As a person who simply doesn’t party of drink and never have, I have a hard time understanding one night per week of partying and drinking, but seeing that expand to three nights per week is hard for me to fathom.
Today was Thursday, day three since we returned to the hillside from our five week absence. Day one was spent opening boxes. Day two was organizing all the junk from Ithaca and doing yet another triage of the clothing, guided by the binding constraint of what will fit in my half of our walk-in closet. I took all sorts of extra clothing that I am unlikely to ever wear to the Salvation Army. I told the nice guy on the loading dock that I had lots of good stuff in those bags (including some almost new shoes) and here’s the thing, its all XXXL, which I reminded him was probably in very high demand by their constituents. He thanked me and put my bags into a bin and as I drove off I noticed that the bin sat next to a dozen other bins. I guess everyone thinks their castoffs are more special than anyone else’s. And, I am guessing the Salvation Army is pretty immune to all that at this stage. Nonetheless, I think I have made some big guys very happy. I also took a carload full of cardboard to the local EDCO drop-off center. And that all got me to today, with the clothes done and the memorabilia including pictures, books and chochkas. Plenty to do, but getting close to the finish line.
And then my Thursday kicked in. Kim had to go for some personal services that she booked for several hours in the middle of the day. Thursday mornings are cleaning crew morning and that means all three of us (Kim, Betty and me) have to get out of the house for several hours. But Kim had also booked Luis to come and detail the Mercedes. That takes a few hours. While he was here I asked him to wash the two motorcycles that have been sitting in the garage all summer. I, in turn, was busy watching Betty while Kim headed off. Just then, Colleen showed up to walk Betty. You would think that freed me up, but not so fast… Besides Luis working away on the car and motorcycles in the driveway (Kim had taken the Tesla, so I wasn’t going anywhere). With all due respect, Kim did leave me two Uncrustables PBJ pockets for lunch, so I was living high on the hog, but doing it in the garage since the cleaning crew was hard at work inside and Luis was using up the driveway. With the Mercedes, Luis’ van, Colleen’s car and the cleaning crew minivan, it was getting busy on the hilltop.
Before Kim left, she had me call the exterminator since she had found a scorpion in the powder room (I got the pleasure of killing it last night). Kim is very serious about scorpions even though their sting is about like a bee sting, which is no fun, but not really deadly. So, the exterminator was due some time during the day. In addition, Kim said the kitchen sink wasn’t’ getting hot water. What the fuck! I just spent $10k replacing the 70 gallon tank with a new tankless system and on Tuesday had the service come to turn on the water heater from the other side of the house, something that a $10k service seems not to have included. I was not pleased and insisted they come today. The service sent their quality control guy who did a thorough review of both sides of the house and showed me the temperature of each and every faucet in the house. It seems an air pocket in the line had caused the tepid kitchen sink water, but all was well now. That meant that all I had to do now was to monitor the spa service guy who had missed a broken valve that was causing water to gush out of the pump and down the hill (according to my gardener who alerted me to the leak yesterday). He apologized for the spa getting emptied overnight due to that leak and he started to fill the spa and said he would return in three hours to set it straight.
At 6:00pm, three hours after he was due, the spa guy called me to tell me he couldn’t return until tomorrow morning to set the system straight. I asked if the pool had filled and he said I should check it since it had likely MORE than filled by now. So much for my water bill this month. I went out and shut it down and can just hope that he shows tomorrow. Whenever he talks to me the spa guy now starts by saying that I probably am very mad at him. Strangely enough, I am not mad at him like I was at the water heater guys. Finally, our service providers were done for the day…oh, except for the dog groomer who had yet to come to give Betty her much needed bath.
By my count, that was seven service providers to contend with in one day. Thank God my gardener and massage therapist came yesterday, otherwise I would be approaching ten different service providers. Kim has told me that someone put two bottles of champagne in the ice macker and one had burst, causing her to have to clean and restart it. She also told me the new washing machine is on the fritz, so there’s that yet to be done. I’m not so sure its about the day of the week, but at least for today, I’m prepared that, while I managed to get everything taken care of today (except the spa, which is held over to tomorrow), to suggest that at least for this week, Thursday sucks.