sheesh

Another teacher and I got snookered into setting up a retirement party for a couple of fellow teachers. Suddenly there's a political mess, people not signing up, etc. etc. Except we have a contract with the expensive restaurant to show up with money for a lot of guests - or get socked with a disasterous cancellation fee.

Maybe now I'll have learned to let it go - and if there's no partying in the future...oh, well.

Anyone want to go to a retirement dinner? The dinner'll be really nice!!

What a day

What a pip of a day!

Still recovering from slamming a finger between a library chair and table yesterday - finger is no longer twice its size and is less black, more blue.

The new motherboard for our circulation computer had not arrived by the time I left - meaning the chaos caused by the equipment failure would continue a bit longer. I feel for the IT guy - we have run him absolutely ragged the last couple of days, especially after a heating system malfunction superheated the building and killed equipment. Praying it's fine by tomorrow - we're seriously behind.

Fuel oil tank in basement had large puddle under it, called emergency service. Turned out to be a corroded line to the filter - easily fixed. (Technician also explained it would not have exploded or burned - good to know.)

Early exit from school (on a day I was fabulously busy) made me miss a meeting announced right near the end of school...at which our principal announced she's leaving after only two years - and before a number of reforms she was planning are in place. (And they would have moved us in the right direction, albeit with the faculty kicking and screaming the whole way.)

And it's only Tuesday!

Is this a water joke?

The lake that our upper lawn has become spawned a rivulet which immediately headed across the driveway into my newly established flower bed. After lugging and dumping carefully spreading a dozen huge sacks of garden soil; planting a lilac; planting a burning bush; and planting an entire large sack of tulip bulbs, I coudln't let this continue. (Actually I'd have thought about it less if it weren't for all the holes laboriously dug for the tulip bulbs.)

Thanks to Ocean State Job Lot's sale on 32 quart sacks of potting soil, I acquired a supply of sand bags and banked the driveway. The new river was redirected...to the lower lawn. What luck that I had already purchased sacks of grass seed for some patching! Maybe I should just dump them in the junior river and let it spread the grass seed in its own path?

The garden disaster having been more or less averted, I can return to constructing annotated science ebibliographies. Oh, joy.

Sad

One of our outside kitties was seriously injured somehow. Despite valiant efforts by Daughter and a nice vet, the decision had to be made that it would be inhumane to put him through any more suffering and he has been euthanized.

He was a very nice kitty and both we and the other outside kitty will miss him.

[Reserves perfect pebble til his ashes return in a couple of weeks.]

The Return of the Jedi

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732'

...and now the well is no longer dry. The idiot appliance repair contractor finally showed up - and only 2 and a half hours late (or 6 weeks late, depending on your perspective). Apparently we're supposed to be grateful he made an appearance at all.

After many false starts, which involved disassembling the entire water dispenser; looking intently (for no apparent reason and at length) at the brand new water hose; asking us for an extension cord (really. he did.); wondering aloud if an ungrounded plug could stop a water supply; and calling for backup from the bright folk who sent him here, he finally decided to take a look at the electrical connections to, you know, see if they might be creating the electrical problem. And lo! The spirit of the Lord came upon him - and he noticed that the wires were loose. So he tightened them and the connection was restored. Water issued forth from the dry dispenser and (after dumping the requisite number of contaminated batches) it was good. Of course, it could have been good on the day it was delivered in February but I am reminded that late could be better than never....it's a rather near thing.

I am in the wrong field. I get paid rather poorly to be a professional, with all that implies. I could be a seriously underaccomplished dolt, work shorter hours, have essentially no accountability, and get paid well. Who's the dummy??

Ok, so at least I have nice cold water and all the nice space that the big filtered water pitcher used to take up.