trapped

11 a.m. on Friday is customarily the time I drive down to the supermarket to pick up the week's grocery order, stopping off at a Chinese takeout in the same shopping center (which opens at 11) to pick up lunch and the makings (viz. a serving of steamed rice) for home-made fried rice for dinner that evening. Meanwhile, B. is usually heading out at the same time for the gym.

But not this day. This day our cars were stuck in their parking spaces due to the large tree-trimming truck occupying too much of the narrow space of our complex's access driveway to get past. Nor had management sent a warning notice about this, as they do when the asphalt is to be re-sealed.

B. walked down and asked the trimmers how long they'd be. Language difficulties meant they had trouble understanding the question, but the answer turned out to be several hours. Fortunately for us, but not for the people at the other end of the complex, part of that time turned out to be spent on the other branch of the access driveway, so we could at last get out by car.

Even more frustrating was the moving van on the previous day. To a query about how long he'd be blocking the driveway, the driver suggested to B. that she go out the other exit. There is no other exit.

Meantime, we had another household excitement when B. bought patches online to fix the holes in the patio screen door. Putting them on the inside, with the help of a kitchen step-stool, didn't work because the glass door just tore them off. Put them on the other side of the screen door? Yes, but due to the step down to the patio, the holes are higher on that side than a step-stool can enable one to reach.

Solution, a genuine ladder. Surprise, we have one. I bought it at our old house to clean out the gutters. We don't have to do that here, as management has someone take care of that, and besides this house is two stories, too high for our ladder to be good with. But it was fine for this. Being aluminum, it hadn't decayed in the 15 years since we last used it. I brought it down and out from its storage place in the garage, set it up, and B. carefully ascended a couple of steps to apply the patch.