7:34 PM - 15.09.04
Square Dance
Well it's been a day and a half in half that time, dear diary. After I signed off last night, my youngest and I turned on the water so that we could give the felines what they needed plus store up enough for ourselves to get through the morning duties. Wrong move. The pipes under the kitchen sink burst flooding both the upstairs and the basement below. The floor in the kitchen has an underlay of pressboard, so it is still spongy to walk on and we used most of the throw rugs and extra blankets in the house to soak up all the water flooding the place. Paradoxically, the water pressure plummeted for every other tap so that we still weren't able to draw enough fluid off to cover our needs. Called the plumbing company's 24 hour emergency number and got voicemail. Right. By about 2 am we had everything secured and the cats in bed. I called and left messages for my supervisor, the liaison and the brother just letting them know that I wouldnt be in first thing until I was able to get the plumber on site and doing what I wanted done. Then I crashed for a few hours.
By 8 am I still hadn't heard from the company that owed me time, so I called them. Apparently their answering service hadn't passed on my message. Uh huh. On the plus side the plumber who had originally done the work in August was already on his way - hang in there. Not much else I could do. Half an hour later he walked in the door and I showed him the damage upstairs. He had my youngest turning the main water tap off and on for about half an hour just trying to locate the source of the probelem in the kitchen, since it had to be addressed before anything else could occur. By 9:30 he had that fixed, but had completely removed the tubing so that we could hook up the dishwasher. When I asked him to replace it he said he wouldn't because it would cost me more than I could afford. Uh huh, fine time to tell me and why didn't he consult me before he removed it then. The dishwasher sitting there was fairly obvious.
Should I argue with him? Tempted I was, but at that point I was pretty emotional after four days of waiting for the work to be done and I still wanted my bathroom fixed properly so we could use that facility. Being that he was surly meant that it would likely have ended up a shouting match - something I detest - and I don't think I would have come out ahead even if he acquiesced - too many ways to sabotage the work. I think though, that when I've settled a bit a letter will be going to his boss and maybe the Better Business Bureau detailing the problems we've had with him. Maybe this is normal plumber behaviour, but I hope not. Anyway by 11:30 the bathroom repairs were done and my youngest was back turning the main tap on and off. The cold water worked at reduced pressure and the hot water not at all. The plumber went to look at the hot water tank to see if the pilot light had gone out. In the meantime, I ran the taps to get some water for cooking - not. The stuff was a really gross brown colour. Great. The plumber returned with my youngest and declared that the water heater was toast as a result of last night's pipe fiasco. I didn't doubt him on that, because I've known for some time that I was going to have to replace it soon. It was installed when the house was built 25 years ago and it is completely rusted out around the bottom where the pilot light is located. Holes in the tank mean it was getting dangerous. The pilot light blows out on occasion and I can't relight it anymore without major time and effort. What to do?
Not much choice. He quoted me a price for a new one plus installation that wasn't too far out of range for the more economical models I had looked at and said he would install it immediately with permission. I'd already researched prices anticipating a problem some months ago. If Elections Canada pays me what they owe me, after deducting taxes of course, it should just about cover the bills. In the meantime I guess my charge card is going to get a workout. I agreed and off he went back to the shop while I fired up my computer, so I could e-mail everyone at work who needed to know I likely wouldn't make it in at all today. No sense calling when I was fairly weepy - you know how I feel about letting that show, don't you dear diary. Computer crashed twice before I could get those notes out. Great, how long can I keep this beast running.
The phone rang and it was the receptionist at the plumbing shop - my credit card had been declined. Say what? I had just paid off almost all of the charges two weeks ago - there should have been no problem. She went through each number and we finally found the one digit that was off. She said she would retry that. While I waited, I called my banking service just to see how much cash I had just in case. Surprise, sur-prise as Gomer would say, my paycheque still hadn't been deposited. New payroll person just taking over at the data management company so irritating but understandable - scary too considering where I would be stuck if the credit card was declined again. Called the receptionist to find out whether there were any more problems. No, everything had gone through this time. Whew. Next task - refire up the computer and e-mail the new payroll person to ask her what the problem was. She still hasn't gotten back to me by phone or e-mail and my account is still empty as we speak. Great.
The plumber arrived back with the new tank in tow and had it installed by about 2 pm. I had been sitting all morning with the cats in their room they share with the computer. They were pretty stressed by the scent of a strange male plus the smell of burning from the welding and the noise of fire alarms going off and power tools and vacuums being run. Acting out a bit they were, spraying and doing their toilette in my flower boxes - such as is left after their midnight ministrations. Anyway he finished and left quite pleased with life. Dumped his whole stash of promo pens on my table saying I should get something for my money. Better be more than that bucko. Six year warranty on the new tank and three years service on the other work, so I guess I'm ahead of the game that way. But reality says I'm broke again.
Means there's not much of a cushion if I need to leave this contract before I get another. Not smart I know, but I haven't been able to keep food down for almost a week and I've had to double up on some of my meds. One way or another I'm not going to be able to stay there much longer. Whine with cheese, I know. One of the sibs or my brother's live-in must have made a crack about how much weight I lost to my youngest on our weekend trip, since they last saw me at Christmas. Bulimia was the word he reproduced just after the picnic. Nope just Atkins, exercise and so much stress at work that my digestive system is shutting down, thank you very much. I guess that's a measure of the commenter though - couldn't they just compliment me for succeeding at such a tough task? Grumbling again I know but it is a stress reducer in itself and you're the only one who hears dear diary - you and my inhouse sons.
My youngest is busy cleaning my work CDs right now. Someone spilled something really pungent and sticky over them while they were left unattended in my desk in a bag - still no drawer or storage space on the site for me - on Monday. Now I could have caused that if I carried different things for lunch, but my lunch is usually hard cheese, nuts and dried fruit so that doesn't compute. Besides only the CDs were affected while there was nothing on the scarf, mittens, headband or extra socks left in the same bag. One would think they would absorb the fluid first. The worst of it was that the substance rubbed off on the sweater I was wearing and was absorbed by my hands as well, so I smelled of it too. Now that the water is back on my bag has gone for laudering.
I did get an e-mail back from the liaison just an hour ago, saying that it was fine that I was absent and just to concentrate on getting things back to scratch in my home, but then I've never seen her as the source of the personal attacks while I'm at work. She does resent my presence, but I think that is more because she feels her employer is expressing a lack of confidence in her abilities. I think they just know that she can't protect herself or the company from the people doing the damage all on her own and are trying to bring in other safeguards. She doesn't see it that way and I don't think she sees the perpetrators as anything other than just inept or misguided on a minor level. Fair enough. Anyway enough grousing. Time to go try to do more clean up. Housework has now been pushed back behind square one - it would be nice to get back to square one sometime tonight.
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