Hear Me Cackle!

If you had been my neighbor today, 

you might have heard a loud cackle coming from Marvel Hill 

- even from several hills over.

See, My Internet died.

And well, when I went out to jiggle the cord...

I discovered that the car battery was low.

No... Dead.

Of course, no Internet.

To say nothing of not going anywhere in the car.

(are you following all this?)

So naturally I did what any self-reliant woman would do:  I called my husband.

After an educational conversation, I went in search of the battery charger.

And I found it!

...In a very random location;

so when I did... I gave a hoot.  "Ahhh-HA!"

Then grabbed an extension cord which was plugged in to a generator at one end.

At the other end... there was a maze and a tangle, and a downright character-building mess.

But I undid it.

That's when I crowed:

"Not to be foiled YET, you trying little problem!" (said I.)

As I walked the length of cord toward the front of the house where my dead van was parked,

I wondered, wondered, wondered... would it reach?

I could tell it would be close, so I figured probably not.

But in a spirit of determination I kept walking and tugging on that cord.

It REACHED MY CHARGER!

-And that's when I laughed out loud in amazement.  "We'll I'll BE."

Do you know that it's been several years since I last opened the hood on my own car?

It's a European-made vehicle, and I did wonder if I could figure it out.

(I've never [ever] claimed to be mechanical.)

When I finally mastered my own hood latch, that's when a cackle escaped.

I'm not embarrassed.  I even considered my neighbors, but you know?

I'm pretty sure that almost anyone on this hill would appreciate overcoming a little obstacle like I did today.

So I cackled pretty loud.  ...And longer than was positively necessary,

but that was because I could clearly identify which was the red side of the battery and which was the black.

I'm not mechanical, but I'm no dummy.

I knew that was an important (and life-sustaining) detail.

After that, it was all downhill.

I knew the battery would charge;

I knew the van would start;

I knew I'd have Internet by the end of the afternoon.

And I DID!

You must think it confounding and rather mind boggling that my Internet was dependant on...
 all that adlepated hooliganism.
 But understand something now:
We live pretty normal lives up here on the Hill, but it' IS an adlepated, Jerry-rigged kind of unconventional.
Makes life interesting,
Builds character, confidence, camaraderie... occasionally consternation.
But we like it.  And most days it's just "our kind of normal."

This post is a confession however, for me to say
that every once in a while, when "our kind of normal" comes up and my mechanical hero isn't here...


I have been known to cackle.