The Long Trenching Experience

Phil figures he's had about eight hours of sleep the last three nights. He is one over-the-top tired guy. He's been trying to coordinate everything for the electrical service this morning, and he has had such a string of bad luck.

Friday he clipped the internet cable. He fixed that, at least temporarily.

Saturday he was digging again, and cut the water line, and clipped an electrical cable. (I don't think he severed it, but my goodness.) By Saturday, we're all ridiculously dirty, and we won't survive long without water, so that became top priority. A trip to town and a few extra hours delay.

Sunday morning he realized he was hopelessly behind with trenching. So he had a choice: go to church in the morning, or community group in the afternoon. He opted to skip church, intending to have a more personal "meeting together" in the afternoon.

I headed up a bit early to meet with the midwife. I had had 24 hours of contractions, five to ten minutes apart. We checked: no real progress. Baby is fine, but good gracious, what a lot of emotional upheaval to realize that nothing had happened. (The boys sat in the foyer. Jadon read some Encyclopedia Brown mysteries to them while they waited.)

When I got home about five hours after I left, Phil had not made much progress. He had again severed the water line (in a different spot). And he had hit a rock that was about the size of a pig. It was a behemoth. I could imagine him out there, digging and digging as the day passed.

So he didn't make it to community group. He did fix the water line. He trenched enough, though not as much as he had hoped.

This morning he was up early. Rain was in the forecast, and he had a few vent pipes not fully watertight on the building. That was first priority. Then he was ready to greet the electrical guys. But they were experiencing a monsoon down in their location, and called to cancel. That message didn't come through for us for quite some time, but it ended up being a good thing: the deluge hit us a bit later. It didn't last long, but it was vigorous.

We had intended to hit Lowe's yesterday, but didn't get to that, either. Phil went up to make sure the electricians working here would have what they needed. And he finished his trenching. So the two-day delay on electricity was a good thing there, too: Phil stayed busy all day, doing what he had hoped to get to over the weekend.

I ended the day on a sad note. I was getting ready to drain simmering pasta water and somehow sloshed some. Normally, this wouldn't have been an issue, but my belly protrudes so far, the water ran all over it.

Since I've cried the last three days, it would hardly be late pregnancy without tears today, too, so my spigots opened. Phil came and finished the pasta, and I am resting with a package of frozen corn wrapped around my midsection. I don't think the burn is a bad burn, nor overly painful, but as if any late-term pregnancy person needs something else to make them more uncomfortable.