In Which I Have a Heck of a Day
Dec. 20th, 2019 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aUgh.
I wake up at 8.50 or something this morning, and when I wander into my office I notice a truck sitting on the street, blocking our garage. And I wonder if it's our handyman, B., who was going to be installing side and backsplashes today to resolve one of our house crises, the finishing of the installation of the new vanity, which was way more trouble than it should have been (and quite likely more than it was worth). But I'd expected him to call first.
So I wander back into the bedroom and put on some clothes. (No shower for me this morning, on the second day running; sorry folks!) And when I came downstairs, B. comes to the door. Yep. No shower.
He installs the side and backsplashes, and he'd managed to match the piebald nature of our vanity basin, but in a darker color. Maybe it looks intentional? I dunno. It's not close enough to look like an accident. I don't like the color variation, but maybe I'd get used to it. But I won't because we're leaving in 11 days. So good enough? The whole area looks tons better than before the splash installation, because you can no longer see the uneven nature of the walls, and how the vanity is actually partially sitting in the wall. So, way better, and good enough.
And they were done before 10.00.
But the heater is also doing funny things.
Here's the whole sequence of what I hope to be our last house crisis.
1. Over the weekend, I notice the heater goes off every once in a while and the temperature drops four or five degrees or so below what it should before it goes back on.
2. Wednesday, I call a new heater repair company, and they send out R., who tells us it's the valve, which is getting too hot and shutting off, but he needs to replace several things to bring it into compliance. Fair enough. He goes to work under the house, breaks a rusty connector, doesn't have any replacements, and tells us that he'll be back with a replacement in the morning. I totally control myself. Accidents happen. But I'm really unthrilled we don't have heat overnight on the edge of winter.
3. Wednesday night, Katherine brings us a nice little space heater to tide us over. We manage to heat up the bedroom pretty well. Still, Lucy spends the last few hours of the night climbing on top of me, presumably huddling for warmth, leaving me constantly turning over as my muscles clench up due to a leaden cat lying atop them.
4. Thursday morning, I put on my clothes first thing and the doorbell rings, and I go downstairs to see a new heater repair guy, J., who I have a lot of trouble communicating with, but he and a helper disappear under the house and a while later report that it's all done, except someone will be out later with a sensor that they don't have, but it should work fine until then.
5. Thursday noonish, J. and his helper return and do something mysterious under the house, presumably replacing the sensor, and then they come up and we assure ourselves that everything is working right. It all seems fine at the time
6. Thursday night, sometime in the hour before bed, the heater starts making weird sounds, and I'm not sure it's turning off right. I watch it for a while and determine it's maintaining the heat even if there's something wacky. (I'd worried it might super-heat the house, but it doesn't.) Maybe it'll be better in the morning.
Now it's Friday morning, and the weird sounds are still happening. I shut the heater off entirely (though it still sounds like it's on) and eventually things cool down enough that I can pop the radiator cap without burning myself. It looks like the pilot light is running very high. So we constantly hear it, and it's generating some heat even when the furnace is theoretically off, because it's big enough to heat the metal in the radiator a bit. I call the heater repair place and request someone come out for a fourth time. They tell me someone will be out there after 5pm.
My work day starts and it's increasingly becoming a blur. I'm finishing up some finances for Skotos and trying to resolve some issues for RPGnet and talking with Chris about a few RPGnet topics.
I take a break to scan and email my applications for power & water service in Kauai. The power service request goes easy. We exchange some email, I later get them some more info, and then they send me info on how to get them a deposit. We should have power on the first. (As long as I pay them!) The water service is more of a pain in my tuckus. They will only accept a deposit in person or by post and oh hey, they're closed on the first. Yeah, maybe moving on the first was not the best idea. But so it goes. So I'm going to have to mail them everything.
Oh, and I get email from my shipping company with a weight and an invoice. (8000 pounds exactly, which suggests to me that they round up if their stepped scale would result in a higher cost at 7,800 or something. But that's 211 pounds less than their estimate) This all means I need to pay them so that they will actually ship my stuff. Oh hey, it's already noon and they're closed down for the day, probably having a holiday party where they're having fun. And they're really picky about how they'll receive payment so I need to add my investment banker to my TODO list to get a certified cashier's check.
I get royalties done and decide I need to take a run around Berkeley.
At Skotos' bank, I get our address updated to Chris' address. SUCCESS!
At my banker, I'm told they don't do cashier's checks, but maybe I can have them wire the money. But my shipper is already closed for the day, so I can't get wiring info. FAILURE.
At the post office, I see an hour-long line for the counter that there's no way I'm going to stand in. But no problem, I'll just use their magic machine to overnight my envelope to the Kauai water company. It's kind of an awful interface, and I need to run through everything twice ... before I get to the payment screen that utterly fails. FAILURE.
So I walk to CVS to get some stamps. But not drugs for K., because there's an awful line there too. And then I walk back to the post office to drop off my letter so it goes out today (and hope that first class is good enough). Then I walk to the UPS Store where we fight a bit about closing Skotos' box, and they agree to forward the mail for 1 month, but not the 6 months that's apparently required by law, but it's probably good enough. Then I walk back to CVS and can at least drop off my prescription, but they're too busy to process it at the time.
And I walk home.
And this is made all the more annoying by the fact that I don't have a bike. It's already been shipped. Oh, Kimberly's bike is still here, but it's got a really slow leak on one tire, and she hasn't used it in long enough that it's flat. I actually planned to use it for things like this set of errands ... until I realized that the bike pump had shipped too. Dammit.
So I finish out the work day mostly talking to Christopher about how to deal with RPGnet things as I start to move over to other stuff next year. And by the end of the day, I've still got several required things on my list TODO. I'm going to have to figure out how to manage them in the next few days or week without stressing myself out.
Because there's too much stress.
I come downstairs. The heater is still making funny noises. I wait around for the heater guy for a while.
Finally I decide I need to pick up Kimberly's drugs. I give her the full explanation of the pilot light debacle.
I get the drugs. I get some dinner. I come home. We eat. We finish up the Survivor finale. It's 8.00. There's no heater guy.
I think the amazing thing is that the heater company picks up at 8.00. The woman I talk to keeps telling me that they can send someone in the morning, and I keep asking where our 5.00 tech is. I'm really nice about it, but firm. She finally tells me she'll find out, and someone else calls back a few minutes later.
She tells me that the guy got stuck at his last job. And he'll come by tomorrow between 11.00-1.00. To fix the problem from their work two days previous.
I'm good. I don't yell at her. But when I hang up I do childishly throw the phone. Which is going in the trash in 11 days anyway.
The heater is still making funny noises.
I'm done with the day.
I wake up at 8.50 or something this morning, and when I wander into my office I notice a truck sitting on the street, blocking our garage. And I wonder if it's our handyman, B., who was going to be installing side and backsplashes today to resolve one of our house crises, the finishing of the installation of the new vanity, which was way more trouble than it should have been (and quite likely more than it was worth). But I'd expected him to call first.
So I wander back into the bedroom and put on some clothes. (No shower for me this morning, on the second day running; sorry folks!) And when I came downstairs, B. comes to the door. Yep. No shower.
He installs the side and backsplashes, and he'd managed to match the piebald nature of our vanity basin, but in a darker color. Maybe it looks intentional? I dunno. It's not close enough to look like an accident. I don't like the color variation, but maybe I'd get used to it. But I won't because we're leaving in 11 days. So good enough? The whole area looks tons better than before the splash installation, because you can no longer see the uneven nature of the walls, and how the vanity is actually partially sitting in the wall. So, way better, and good enough.
And they were done before 10.00.
But the heater is also doing funny things.
Here's the whole sequence of what I hope to be our last house crisis.
1. Over the weekend, I notice the heater goes off every once in a while and the temperature drops four or five degrees or so below what it should before it goes back on.
2. Wednesday, I call a new heater repair company, and they send out R., who tells us it's the valve, which is getting too hot and shutting off, but he needs to replace several things to bring it into compliance. Fair enough. He goes to work under the house, breaks a rusty connector, doesn't have any replacements, and tells us that he'll be back with a replacement in the morning. I totally control myself. Accidents happen. But I'm really unthrilled we don't have heat overnight on the edge of winter.
3. Wednesday night, Katherine brings us a nice little space heater to tide us over. We manage to heat up the bedroom pretty well. Still, Lucy spends the last few hours of the night climbing on top of me, presumably huddling for warmth, leaving me constantly turning over as my muscles clench up due to a leaden cat lying atop them.
4. Thursday morning, I put on my clothes first thing and the doorbell rings, and I go downstairs to see a new heater repair guy, J., who I have a lot of trouble communicating with, but he and a helper disappear under the house and a while later report that it's all done, except someone will be out later with a sensor that they don't have, but it should work fine until then.
5. Thursday noonish, J. and his helper return and do something mysterious under the house, presumably replacing the sensor, and then they come up and we assure ourselves that everything is working right. It all seems fine at the time
6. Thursday night, sometime in the hour before bed, the heater starts making weird sounds, and I'm not sure it's turning off right. I watch it for a while and determine it's maintaining the heat even if there's something wacky. (I'd worried it might super-heat the house, but it doesn't.) Maybe it'll be better in the morning.
Now it's Friday morning, and the weird sounds are still happening. I shut the heater off entirely (though it still sounds like it's on) and eventually things cool down enough that I can pop the radiator cap without burning myself. It looks like the pilot light is running very high. So we constantly hear it, and it's generating some heat even when the furnace is theoretically off, because it's big enough to heat the metal in the radiator a bit. I call the heater repair place and request someone come out for a fourth time. They tell me someone will be out there after 5pm.
My work day starts and it's increasingly becoming a blur. I'm finishing up some finances for Skotos and trying to resolve some issues for RPGnet and talking with Chris about a few RPGnet topics.
I take a break to scan and email my applications for power & water service in Kauai. The power service request goes easy. We exchange some email, I later get them some more info, and then they send me info on how to get them a deposit. We should have power on the first. (As long as I pay them!) The water service is more of a pain in my tuckus. They will only accept a deposit in person or by post and oh hey, they're closed on the first. Yeah, maybe moving on the first was not the best idea. But so it goes. So I'm going to have to mail them everything.
Oh, and I get email from my shipping company with a weight and an invoice. (8000 pounds exactly, which suggests to me that they round up if their stepped scale would result in a higher cost at 7,800 or something. But that's 211 pounds less than their estimate) This all means I need to pay them so that they will actually ship my stuff. Oh hey, it's already noon and they're closed down for the day, probably having a holiday party where they're having fun. And they're really picky about how they'll receive payment so I need to add my investment banker to my TODO list to get a certified cashier's check.
I get royalties done and decide I need to take a run around Berkeley.
At Skotos' bank, I get our address updated to Chris' address. SUCCESS!
At my banker, I'm told they don't do cashier's checks, but maybe I can have them wire the money. But my shipper is already closed for the day, so I can't get wiring info. FAILURE.
At the post office, I see an hour-long line for the counter that there's no way I'm going to stand in. But no problem, I'll just use their magic machine to overnight my envelope to the Kauai water company. It's kind of an awful interface, and I need to run through everything twice ... before I get to the payment screen that utterly fails. FAILURE.
So I walk to CVS to get some stamps. But not drugs for K., because there's an awful line there too. And then I walk back to the post office to drop off my letter so it goes out today (and hope that first class is good enough). Then I walk to the UPS Store where we fight a bit about closing Skotos' box, and they agree to forward the mail for 1 month, but not the 6 months that's apparently required by law, but it's probably good enough. Then I walk back to CVS and can at least drop off my prescription, but they're too busy to process it at the time.
And I walk home.
And this is made all the more annoying by the fact that I don't have a bike. It's already been shipped. Oh, Kimberly's bike is still here, but it's got a really slow leak on one tire, and she hasn't used it in long enough that it's flat. I actually planned to use it for things like this set of errands ... until I realized that the bike pump had shipped too. Dammit.
So I finish out the work day mostly talking to Christopher about how to deal with RPGnet things as I start to move over to other stuff next year. And by the end of the day, I've still got several required things on my list TODO. I'm going to have to figure out how to manage them in the next few days or week without stressing myself out.
Because there's too much stress.
I come downstairs. The heater is still making funny noises. I wait around for the heater guy for a while.
Finally I decide I need to pick up Kimberly's drugs. I give her the full explanation of the pilot light debacle.
I get the drugs. I get some dinner. I come home. We eat. We finish up the Survivor finale. It's 8.00. There's no heater guy.
I think the amazing thing is that the heater company picks up at 8.00. The woman I talk to keeps telling me that they can send someone in the morning, and I keep asking where our 5.00 tech is. I'm really nice about it, but firm. She finally tells me she'll find out, and someone else calls back a few minutes later.
She tells me that the guy got stuck at his last job. And he'll come by tomorrow between 11.00-1.00. To fix the problem from their work two days previous.
I'm good. I don't yell at her. But when I hang up I do childishly throw the phone. Which is going in the trash in 11 days anyway.
The heater is still making funny noises.
I'm done with the day.