It's been a day...
It all started out with what could have been a near-death experience but was instead utterly hilarious.
The kitchen garbage was full as of last night, which means it was time for it to go out with me this morning. People being the slobs that they are I was surprised by neither the large number of birds bouncing around the edges of the garbage can enclosure nor by the unceremoniously dumped bag of melon rinds, coffee grounds and whatnot that decorated the middle of the circle of mostly empty and mostly closed trash cans.
What did surprise me was the raccoon that popped up from the one open trash can when I dropped my garbage off in another and let the lid slam a little. Must have woken the poor thing up, because as soon as his head popped up and he saw me, he jumped backwards with so little grace that he fell tail over head backwards into the space between the open can and the one next to. Last thing I saw was his little raccoon hands holding on for dear life as he tried to regain his senses.
I'd hate to think how that would have gone if I had decided to drop the bag in the open can. Rabies shots would have been in my future.
Work was busy again today. Thankfully, in this job, that's not a bad thing at all. Why? Because when it's busy I can actually do work and the work I do is done when it leaves my hands. It is satisfying well beyond previous jobs.
Coming home, death-by-nature stalked me yet again. I saw the storm coming in as I waited for the bus to show up at the Metro station. I knew if I were to walk the distance, I'd surely get caught in the downpour. At least if I took the bus, I figured, I'd only get wet between the bus stop and the door to the apartment. Lightning was already flashing in the sky and the near constant rumble of thunder was something I had originally confused for a passing train.
About two stops from mine, just as the bus door was closing from letting someone off, there was an instantaneous flash and boom followed by every car alarm on the block going off and pieces of a tree falling into the yard next to the bus stop.
The lightning had struck the large tree less than 20 yards from the bus. And while I would have had a better view of it had I been walking, I'm not so sure I would have wanted to. Shortly thereafter, as I was getting off the bus, the sky opened up and I did, indeed, get rained on a bit between the bus stop and my door.
I am quickly running out of ways to cook my food.
On Thursday last the Foreman grill dial fell off and while this does not render it useless, it does render it inconvenient until I fix it. Monday night I discovered my oven has stopped working. This I found out after leaving it to pre-heat for fifteen or twenty minutes. I returned to it and found it just as room temperature as when I left it. My immediate thought was "Crap... gas has been pouring out of that thing for the past fifteen minutes, I'm going to die or something."
And so, after much fanning of the area and window opening (even though I really didn't smell an inordinate amount of gas, I tend not to trust my nose), I ventured into the broiler to see what was up. Sure enough, the pilot light was out. That problem was quickly solved. That solution led to the discovery of the real problem--the main oven burner isn't being fed any gas (which, I suppose, accounts for the lack of gas smell).
Luckily, my microwave/oven/toaster-oven has a maximum temperature setting just high enough to produce good french fries. If that thing dies, I'm screwed, though.
Of course, when I called the apartment office after 1 p.m. today, no one answered the phone.
The cable guy, however, did answer his phone when I called him after 6 p.m. He'll be by tomorrow evening to try (again) to fix my Internet connection.
I really can't get out of here soon enough, apparently. Time to kick the housing search up into high gear--less than two months before my lease is up.
Here's hoping tomorrow is slightly less dramatic. :)
The kitchen garbage was full as of last night, which means it was time for it to go out with me this morning. People being the slobs that they are I was surprised by neither the large number of birds bouncing around the edges of the garbage can enclosure nor by the unceremoniously dumped bag of melon rinds, coffee grounds and whatnot that decorated the middle of the circle of mostly empty and mostly closed trash cans.
What did surprise me was the raccoon that popped up from the one open trash can when I dropped my garbage off in another and let the lid slam a little. Must have woken the poor thing up, because as soon as his head popped up and he saw me, he jumped backwards with so little grace that he fell tail over head backwards into the space between the open can and the one next to. Last thing I saw was his little raccoon hands holding on for dear life as he tried to regain his senses.
I'd hate to think how that would have gone if I had decided to drop the bag in the open can. Rabies shots would have been in my future.
Work was busy again today. Thankfully, in this job, that's not a bad thing at all. Why? Because when it's busy I can actually do work and the work I do is done when it leaves my hands. It is satisfying well beyond previous jobs.
Coming home, death-by-nature stalked me yet again. I saw the storm coming in as I waited for the bus to show up at the Metro station. I knew if I were to walk the distance, I'd surely get caught in the downpour. At least if I took the bus, I figured, I'd only get wet between the bus stop and the door to the apartment. Lightning was already flashing in the sky and the near constant rumble of thunder was something I had originally confused for a passing train.
About two stops from mine, just as the bus door was closing from letting someone off, there was an instantaneous flash and boom followed by every car alarm on the block going off and pieces of a tree falling into the yard next to the bus stop.
The lightning had struck the large tree less than 20 yards from the bus. And while I would have had a better view of it had I been walking, I'm not so sure I would have wanted to. Shortly thereafter, as I was getting off the bus, the sky opened up and I did, indeed, get rained on a bit between the bus stop and my door.
I am quickly running out of ways to cook my food.
On Thursday last the Foreman grill dial fell off and while this does not render it useless, it does render it inconvenient until I fix it. Monday night I discovered my oven has stopped working. This I found out after leaving it to pre-heat for fifteen or twenty minutes. I returned to it and found it just as room temperature as when I left it. My immediate thought was "Crap... gas has been pouring out of that thing for the past fifteen minutes, I'm going to die or something."
And so, after much fanning of the area and window opening (even though I really didn't smell an inordinate amount of gas, I tend not to trust my nose), I ventured into the broiler to see what was up. Sure enough, the pilot light was out. That problem was quickly solved. That solution led to the discovery of the real problem--the main oven burner isn't being fed any gas (which, I suppose, accounts for the lack of gas smell).
Luckily, my microwave/oven/toaster-oven has a maximum temperature setting just high enough to produce good french fries. If that thing dies, I'm screwed, though.
Of course, when I called the apartment office after 1 p.m. today, no one answered the phone.
The cable guy, however, did answer his phone when I called him after 6 p.m. He'll be by tomorrow evening to try (again) to fix my Internet connection.
I really can't get out of here soon enough, apparently. Time to kick the housing search up into high gear--less than two months before my lease is up.
Here's hoping tomorrow is slightly less dramatic. :)