Trouble in Paradise...

...again. After waiting for the irrigation guy and the water softener guy (biding my time by scrubbing the hard water calcium deposits off the shower walls.) I finally decided to go downtown to do a couple of errands and maybe stop by Peet's. When I tried to start the car, every warning light on the dashboard lit up, but nothing happened with the engines--just a couple of clicks. So much for my foray to Peet's, so much for my little tour of the shops. Time instead to call the AAA.

The sight of any truck--delivery trucks, moving vans, the UPS guy lady, coming up our steep driveway is impressive. The sight of a big flatbed tow truck reversing up the driveway, beeping the whole way up must have gotten the attention of the entire neighborhood.

We frequently complain about this car that thinks it's smarter than we are, automatically locking us in (and out!), lighting our way when we unlock it (but also when we leave the door open), having so many warning lights on the dashboard light up that we're bound to overthink the diagnosis of the problem. OilMan was already resigning himself to buying a new car, while I was mentally canceling long planned appointments in Berkeley because my car would be spending so much time at North Bay Bavarian....

We felt much stupider than our car when it turned out that we had left the door ajar all night and it was helpfully keeping the light on for us--until the battery died.

Our kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts are being painted, and should go in later in the week. In the meantime, wanting to stay home and enjoy our new couch, we have decided to rummage through the boxes in the guest bedroom for the utensils needed to make some nice hearty short ribs for dinner. We can eat on the beautiful butcher block counter and retire to the TV room where I can get caught up on Downton Abbey, and OilMan can work on his puzzle. It's been a long time since we've done that. We're looking forward to it..