Closer to the sun

Today the solar power installers came to our house. It was rather exciting to have them figure out the best way onto our roof (a ladder up to the north side, then clambering over the top of the roof in order to get the panels on the south side) and then we had four hours of thumping and whirring as they stomped about over my head, screwing in the mounts for the panels onto the roof, and then putting the panels in place.
Because of some kind of confusion, the exact set up of the breaker panel, the inverter and the charger for the car couldn’t be done today, so having done all the stuff on the roof, they took off. On the upside, this meant the power didn’t go out at all today, and tomorrow when they return it should only take an hour or so to get things finished off. Then, after many years of considering it, I’ll finally have a solar powered house.

It was very, very loud, though.

I took the girls on a walk to the post office to mail back La Serpiente’s passport photo to Canada. While I was there, in my continued quest to force her to be independent, I gave her five dollars and told her to get me a coffee. That succeeded and the barista even drew her a leaf on request in the milk.

We walked back. Their favourite ice cream shop wasn’t open, so we went to their second favourite and I bought them each a cup of ice cream. They both are half on the way home, and then a bee landed on La Serpiente’s and she didn’t want to have the rest in case it was contaminated. And then, bless her heart, Destroyer gave her big sister the other half of hers. So they can be kind to one another.

Something I read recently, in between marathons of Blood Bowl, was that you have to distinguish between challenges and problems. Not everything is something you battle through and overcome. Some things just suck, and you do your best to get over them, but there’s no one to fight with, no battle of wills. I’m trying to remember this to avoid getting angry about the things I just have to get through. Including getting the girls to tidy the toy room. Onwards.