grumpy ears

Our house is gradually showing signs of age. Slowly but surely we are becoming smarter in all the things that need replacing as a house gets older. Water heaters, HVAC units, garage door openers, rotted trim, new roofing, and surely one day new flooring. Whatever deteriorates with time, I am sure it will have needed to be fixed or replaced by the time the faces staring back at us in the bathroom mirror look barely recognizable to the young adults we subconsciously still think we are.

Yesterday night, another thing that needed fixing added itself to the top of our list of things to do. The springs on our garage door sproinged a mighty sproing, a last hurrah that told us it had broken in two and trapped our cars for the night. Baxter ate dinner and slept, blissfully unaware of our situation, or that a stranger would come this morning to give us back our driving freedom.

Little chumley would have stayed unaware had his spidey senses not tingled this morning when he heard, from behind closed bedroom doors, the sound of dad opening our front door. A stranger's voice was all that was needed to put our boy on high alert, though Baxter's rapid fire barking did little other than chase away the morning silence.

By the time little kielbasa made it downstairs, the stranger had moved on to the garage and was nowhere to be found. Signs of the stranger's presence still rattled about in the form of muffled noises barely audible from the family room in which Little Chumley now sat.

My morning nap was rudely disturbed, his ears lamented grumpily.


Thankfully, our garage door is now fixed, with a ten year warranty on the springs that will hopefully afford Sleeping Beauty the full rest he needs. No more grumpy ears, please, for this tired little wiener boy.