What a day!
And it's not over yet.
The morning started relatively fine as I even unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher before breakfast, but after we got back from the Bug's morning walk I went to top off the den fish tank since it was making noise like it was low on water. It was in fact low on water because there was a leak in the plumbing, which I discovered on the carpet nearby with my socks. Ew. I go upstairs to grab a towel and use it to sop up/provide a dry kneeling area for myself as I rooted around trying to find the problem. The cabinet below the tank was dry, so it wasn't there, and eventually I found the leak at one of the joints in the right filter/pump return thingy. Okay, so I see the problem but I have no clue what to do about it. I try playing with the fitting to see if a wiggle will snug it up, but no go. Eventually I figured out that the best thing would be to unplug the right hand pump leaving the left hand pump in place, which seemed to stop the leak. whew.
After I mop up a bit more, I pull out two fans to turn on the carpeted area in an attempt to start the space drying. I also wrapped a small towel around the leaking plumbing below the joint to hopefully catch any more drips from reaching the carpet. After checking over things a few more times to make sure I didn't miss anything, I head off to work.
Of course the entire time I was texting Alan and sending him a photo of the affected area and asking for advice only to receive silence. Hello? Any help here?! I eventually send him an email with details to his work and personal email address, and get a bounce from what I thought was his work address. Argh! How do I not have his work blackberry's number? How do I still have his old work phone number?!
So I hop in my truck and remember that I need to get gas before getting to work, and the gas station I stop at has a small but tedious line of slow moving people. Seriously?
When I finally get to work I realize that I can't find my key card. It normally lives in my truck passenger seat, but I poke around, even from the passenger door but it is nowhere to be found. I'll have to check the pockets on my insulated lunch bag or the blazer I wore yesterday. Of course I didn't get around to making myself lunch since I was busy sticking my finger in the damn this morning. So I have to ask the admin to borrow her key to get in my office, and she tells me that the quick email I sent giving notice I'd be late "Fish tank leaking. Running late." made her laugh. Her giggles did at least add a good perspective.
Eventually I get an email response of Yikes! and a call from Alan. This would happen on the one day he accidentally leaves his phone in his bathrobe pocket so the first he heard of anything was the email to his personal account. I thought he might have left his phone at home, but I couldn't find it anywhere I looked so assumed he was in an important meeting or it was on silent or something. The good thing is that I do now have his correct work contact info thanks to this whole tempest in an aquarium. And he went home over lunch to deal with the issue and pulled out the wet-dry vac to get up a bunch of the water out of the carpet. Doh! I never remember the wet-dry vac. It never occurs to me as a tool towards a solution. I totally need to add it to my mental database: Problem? Yes. Can you stop it? Yes. Can the Wet-Dry Vac help you clean it? The wet-dry what? sigh.
As I start to think that perhaps the worst is over I head to a meeting/presentation and chat pleasantly with a coworker on the way there. But after we get started an aroma starts to hit me. It's not sickly sweet or really overpowering but I think it is the perfume/cologne of someone near me. The longer I sit my eyes start to sting, then my nose starts to run and I get a tickle in the back of my throat. gah..! I bale out of the meeting to run back to my office to take some allergy eye drops, blow my nose and drink lots of cool water. So now I've been coughing and wheezing for the past three hours as I attempt in vain to get back to work and recover from whatever that was.
How is this my life?!?!
On the whole I'm very lucky, but at the moment I'm dreading the prospect of getting in the car to go home on a wet beltway. sigh. At least there hasn't been any dog vomit, so far.
The morning started relatively fine as I even unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher before breakfast, but after we got back from the Bug's morning walk I went to top off the den fish tank since it was making noise like it was low on water. It was in fact low on water because there was a leak in the plumbing, which I discovered on the carpet nearby with my socks. Ew. I go upstairs to grab a towel and use it to sop up/provide a dry kneeling area for myself as I rooted around trying to find the problem. The cabinet below the tank was dry, so it wasn't there, and eventually I found the leak at one of the joints in the right filter/pump return thingy. Okay, so I see the problem but I have no clue what to do about it. I try playing with the fitting to see if a wiggle will snug it up, but no go. Eventually I figured out that the best thing would be to unplug the right hand pump leaving the left hand pump in place, which seemed to stop the leak. whew.
After I mop up a bit more, I pull out two fans to turn on the carpeted area in an attempt to start the space drying. I also wrapped a small towel around the leaking plumbing below the joint to hopefully catch any more drips from reaching the carpet. After checking over things a few more times to make sure I didn't miss anything, I head off to work.
Of course the entire time I was texting Alan and sending him a photo of the affected area and asking for advice only to receive silence. Hello? Any help here?! I eventually send him an email with details to his work and personal email address, and get a bounce from what I thought was his work address. Argh! How do I not have his work blackberry's number? How do I still have his old work phone number?!
So I hop in my truck and remember that I need to get gas before getting to work, and the gas station I stop at has a small but tedious line of slow moving people. Seriously?
When I finally get to work I realize that I can't find my key card. It normally lives in my truck passenger seat, but I poke around, even from the passenger door but it is nowhere to be found. I'll have to check the pockets on my insulated lunch bag or the blazer I wore yesterday. Of course I didn't get around to making myself lunch since I was busy sticking my finger in the damn this morning. So I have to ask the admin to borrow her key to get in my office, and she tells me that the quick email I sent giving notice I'd be late "Fish tank leaking. Running late." made her laugh. Her giggles did at least add a good perspective.
Eventually I get an email response of Yikes! and a call from Alan. This would happen on the one day he accidentally leaves his phone in his bathrobe pocket so the first he heard of anything was the email to his personal account. I thought he might have left his phone at home, but I couldn't find it anywhere I looked so assumed he was in an important meeting or it was on silent or something. The good thing is that I do now have his correct work contact info thanks to this whole tempest in an aquarium. And he went home over lunch to deal with the issue and pulled out the wet-dry vac to get up a bunch of the water out of the carpet. Doh! I never remember the wet-dry vac. It never occurs to me as a tool towards a solution. I totally need to add it to my mental database: Problem? Yes. Can you stop it? Yes. Can the Wet-Dry Vac help you clean it? The wet-dry what? sigh.
As I start to think that perhaps the worst is over I head to a meeting/presentation and chat pleasantly with a coworker on the way there. But after we get started an aroma starts to hit me. It's not sickly sweet or really overpowering but I think it is the perfume/cologne of someone near me. The longer I sit my eyes start to sting, then my nose starts to run and I get a tickle in the back of my throat. gah..! I bale out of the meeting to run back to my office to take some allergy eye drops, blow my nose and drink lots of cool water. So now I've been coughing and wheezing for the past three hours as I attempt in vain to get back to work and recover from whatever that was.
How is this my life?!?!
On the whole I'm very lucky, but at the moment I'm dreading the prospect of getting in the car to go home on a wet beltway. sigh. At least there hasn't been any dog vomit, so far.