WORST FUCKING VACATION EVER
So I went on vacation for the past seven days. I need a vacation from that vacation.
My visit with a friend on the way turned out to be an incredibly short visit, due to both of us being extremely tired. That sucked, but I decided to go ahead and truck on to Minnesota.
My reserved hotel, The Millenium in Minneapolis, turned out to be the biggest fuck of a hotel ever. I don't know how it qualifies as 3.5 stars, when the Super 8 I stayed at during the previous night had everything this hotel had, PLUS an in-room refrigerator, PLUS free breakfast. As soon as I arrive, they pull $225 from my vacation monies; $120 for "incidentals", and another $105 for parking. ONE HUNDRED AND FUCKING FIVE DOLLARS FOR PARKING.
I say to myself "okay, fine, whatever... I'll just try to enjoy my vacation with what I have left," and proceed on to do as such. It was nice, until Sunday evening hit.
After staying in my hotel room for an extended period of time, I started to develop an upper respiratory infection. That infection has turned out to be pneumonia, on account of a few solid facts regarding pneumonia, coupled with the fact that I still have it. I went ahead and drove on home with it. Bad idea, right? Nope - it turned out to be the best thing I could have done. Why is that?
I arrived home two steps short of worst case scenario. Those two steps being:
1.) The house has not burned down.
2.) The cat is still alive.
When I walked in my front door, I had discovered that the A/C had stopped working. It was a sweltering 96.1'F according to my indoor thermometer. Mind you, I arrived home at 4am... the outside temperature was reading 76.3'F. Apparently the A/C compressor decided to fault out whenever a storm came rolling through while I was gone. Said storm knocked out the power, thus knocking out the A/C and the radio that was supplying the cat with some company while I was gone. When the power came back on, so did the auto fan for the A/C. Without actual cooling power, though, the fan just kept running and running, causing the house to become some sort of twisted sauna.
Of course, I shall now go on to mention that I meant #2 in the most loose definition of "alive" possible. The other thing I noticed when I walked in the door was the cat: a shriveled up version of herself, sweaty enough to have her fur wet, letting out an exasperated whimper of a meow at me. I felt like the worst person on Earth.
The first thing I do? Check the cat's food. After all, that feeder, when completely filled, lasts two weeks with this cat. That is, unless the worst case scenario comes along. In this instance? The ants pretty much managed to build a dead ant bridge over the dish soap moat I put around her food and water, then had their way with her food. Judging by how much of her food is left, it looks like they got to it almost immediately after I left. The cat's water was half-drank (one week's worth) and unscathed... thank goodness for that.
After seeing the cat's food in the condition it was in, I busted out a can of soft food and fed it to her right away. Along with that, I pulled the Brita pitcher out of my fridge and poured her a bowl of fresh, cold water. I'm hoping she'll be alright.
In the meantime, I'm not so sure I'm going to be alright. The pneumonia is kicking as hard as ever, and I am taxed out even for normal circumstances. Irony of ironies, I think the pneumonia is what is keeping me awake still. So, I figured I'd go ahead and type this all up while I wait for the house to cool down somewhere below 85'F. Fortunately for me, the A/C didn't completely die; I was able to reset the compressor, and all is churning cool again.
Other than the three days/nights where things weren't going completely awry, this vacation sucked ass. I would go into more detail, but I'm about to pass out from sickness/exhaustion.
My visit with a friend on the way turned out to be an incredibly short visit, due to both of us being extremely tired. That sucked, but I decided to go ahead and truck on to Minnesota.
My reserved hotel, The Millenium in Minneapolis, turned out to be the biggest fuck of a hotel ever. I don't know how it qualifies as 3.5 stars, when the Super 8 I stayed at during the previous night had everything this hotel had, PLUS an in-room refrigerator, PLUS free breakfast. As soon as I arrive, they pull $225 from my vacation monies; $120 for "incidentals", and another $105 for parking. ONE HUNDRED AND FUCKING FIVE DOLLARS FOR PARKING.
I say to myself "okay, fine, whatever... I'll just try to enjoy my vacation with what I have left," and proceed on to do as such. It was nice, until Sunday evening hit.
After staying in my hotel room for an extended period of time, I started to develop an upper respiratory infection. That infection has turned out to be pneumonia, on account of a few solid facts regarding pneumonia, coupled with the fact that I still have it. I went ahead and drove on home with it. Bad idea, right? Nope - it turned out to be the best thing I could have done. Why is that?
I arrived home two steps short of worst case scenario. Those two steps being:
1.) The house has not burned down.
2.) The cat is still alive.
When I walked in my front door, I had discovered that the A/C had stopped working. It was a sweltering 96.1'F according to my indoor thermometer. Mind you, I arrived home at 4am... the outside temperature was reading 76.3'F. Apparently the A/C compressor decided to fault out whenever a storm came rolling through while I was gone. Said storm knocked out the power, thus knocking out the A/C and the radio that was supplying the cat with some company while I was gone. When the power came back on, so did the auto fan for the A/C. Without actual cooling power, though, the fan just kept running and running, causing the house to become some sort of twisted sauna.
Of course, I shall now go on to mention that I meant #2 in the most loose definition of "alive" possible. The other thing I noticed when I walked in the door was the cat: a shriveled up version of herself, sweaty enough to have her fur wet, letting out an exasperated whimper of a meow at me. I felt like the worst person on Earth.
The first thing I do? Check the cat's food. After all, that feeder, when completely filled, lasts two weeks with this cat. That is, unless the worst case scenario comes along. In this instance? The ants pretty much managed to build a dead ant bridge over the dish soap moat I put around her food and water, then had their way with her food. Judging by how much of her food is left, it looks like they got to it almost immediately after I left. The cat's water was half-drank (one week's worth) and unscathed... thank goodness for that.
After seeing the cat's food in the condition it was in, I busted out a can of soft food and fed it to her right away. Along with that, I pulled the Brita pitcher out of my fridge and poured her a bowl of fresh, cold water. I'm hoping she'll be alright.
In the meantime, I'm not so sure I'm going to be alright. The pneumonia is kicking as hard as ever, and I am taxed out even for normal circumstances. Irony of ironies, I think the pneumonia is what is keeping me awake still. So, I figured I'd go ahead and type this all up while I wait for the house to cool down somewhere below 85'F. Fortunately for me, the A/C didn't completely die; I was able to reset the compressor, and all is churning cool again.
Other than the three days/nights where things weren't going completely awry, this vacation sucked ass. I would go into more detail, but I'm about to pass out from sickness/exhaustion.