It’s been an incredibly hectic few weeks and now summer is over. Yes, summer is over and I’ve only seen one of the top 20 movies of the summer (according to Entertainment Weekly). Not only have I only seen one movie – Julie and Julia – but I’ve seen it twice.

I’ve likely only seen one movie because I’ve been so busy taking care of my house. I should call my summer of 2009 the “house fixer upper” summer. Every time I fixed one thing something else seemed to break down. A few weeks ago, I finally had a new roof put on my house. That was a BIG JOB. Then, while the roofers were putting on the new roof, they broke one of my outdoor lights. (Luckily they quickly repaired it.)

Then, I noticed that my sprinkler system wasn’t working. I think the roofers may have cut one of the wires on the outdoor sensor. I was so busy I didn’t even realize that my sprinkler wasn’t working until the other day when I went outside and wondered why my grass was turning brown and my bushes were drying up.

Last week, my garage door broke down too. I waited all day for a Sears repairman to show up. All day I sat at home waiting and waiting. By noontime, I called to inquire about my appointment.

“When can I expect the repairman to show up?” I said angrily on the phone.

“We told you between 8 am and 5 pm. I know you requested between 8 am and noon, but we cannot guarantee that timeframe,” said the Sears customer service representative.

“All day I have to wait,” I replied, “This is absurd. I cannot wait all day.” I hung up the phone and called my colleague to tell her that I would not be at work because of the Sears repairman. She said I should contact a local garage door company. I got on the internet, googled garage doors and called the local garage door company right away.

“What’s your problem?” said the nice gentleman on the phone. “Your garage door is broken. Okay, I’m just finishing up with a customer. I’ll be right over.”

OMG! It was as though someone had sent me a garage door repair angel. The nice gentleman J showed up at my front door within 20 minutes (and then I led him to my broken garage door).

“Yep, it’s broken,” said J. “You need a whole new double door for your two car garage and a whole new garage door opener. It will take about 4-6 weeks to order and it is $$$.”

As I led J into the house to sign the contract, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. J wrote out the contract and told me about his life, his career which didn’t go as planned, and about his wife who was ill. I told him about my life and my late husband’s illness.

“Will you need an extra door opener for your husband?” said J.

“No, I won’t,” I told J as I started to cry. “He passed away almost two years ago.”

“I’m sorry,” said J. “You know I began clowning around to make some additional money when my wife took ill. I do magic, balloons, face painting, carnivals, games, and music. If you ever need a clown, give me a call.”

My tears turned into laughter as J provided me with his Beep-Beep The Clown business card. J not only saved me from my Sears insanity last week, he also provided me with some levity as I handed over my credit card for what was another hefty amount on top of the hefty amount I had just doled out for my new roof.

I pulled J’s Beep-Beep the Clown business card out of my bag at the end of the week too. I needed more levity after I went down to my basement and found a crack in the foundation wall. I called the foundation repairman and he is due out to assess the damage next week.

Let’s see, I have a new heater and air conditioner and new roof. Soon I’ll have a new garage door and garage door opener. Hopefully, the foundation repairman will be able to fix my foundation before my house sinks into the ground and my sprinkler system will be fixed before my grass and bushes turn into haystacks. And, oh yes, did I mention the stone in my walkway is coming loose (even though last year the landscaper guaranteed that the sand around the stone would last forever and that I would never see any weeds again in between the stone. Ha, ha, ha, and I actually believed him!)

If all else fails, at least my DVD will still be working in the fall, so I can watch all the 19 other top summer movies that I missed this summer which should be coming out on DVD soon. If it breaks down, I think I’ll just call Beep-Beep the Clown ,have some friends over, and we can clown around and have a party.

Judi