Life, And Other Four Letter Words

Depression. Anxiety. Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension.

And then, because my spouse believes sharing is caring, a cold. Ugh. It has been nearly 10 days since I first felt the nasal drip start, and I am SO over it. All this coughing makes my headaches worse, which is fun.

In spite of all that, I feel like I’ve been pretty productive over the past couple of weeks. At the start of this month, I really wanted to withdraw, retreat from the world and be a hermit, have some ‘me time’ – all that jazz. Instead, the Universe decided I actually needed to be kept busy! So I’ve had doctors appointments, and therapy sessions, and group meetings, and outings and so on.

Last Friday was spent helping my dad pack up his stuff and move house… to my place. Yep, we’ve got a flatmate again.

Finally picked up last years financials from the accountant… at least I made it before this year’s are due, ha.

photo of a baby girl lying in cribWe’ve celebrated three birthdays this month: my BIL’s partner turned 32, my MIL turned 56, and my newest niece made an early appearance on the 27th. She’s my brother’s second child, first daughter – and has added an Aries to their household of Capricon + Leo parents with Leo son. That is a lot of fire signs in one house… and some stubborn women. Good luck to ’em! Anyway, that many b-day gifts means I am BROKE and it sucks. Time to start hocking my junk on Trademe.

Hubby and I had planned to go see the whānau this weekend, but my cold has ruled that out. I don’t think I’m contagious, but it’s not worth the risk, as my new niece weighed in at 5lb 14oz at birth so will be delicate for a while, and no doubt the fam will be in and out visiting her and/or her mother. It does mean I’ll be here when BIL and his fam swing back through, so hopefully we’ll catch up and I can give the kids their easter eggs. We don’t celebrate easter for religious reasons, but any excuse to give chocolate to people is a good excuse in my opinion!

photo of black and white cat facing cameraMy furchildren are both well; Bucky is growing in leaps and bounds. Lilo chases him around the house, but we’re no longer worried that she’ll actually hurt him if she does manage to catch him. That’s unlikely, though; he’s fast! And liquid when he wants to be.

He’s still adorable, and we’re pretty sure we’ll be able to teach him to fetch. He loves carrying things in his mouth, and will often bring toys to whoever is around. However, he’s also become something of a mischievous little shit – trying to jump out windows, chewing his food mat, beating on Lilo, pinching things from hubby’s office and stashing them in odd places. So naughty, so cute. What can ya do? When he rubs against you and purrs, you’ll forgive him anything.

Well, Lilo might not. She’s not so easy to win over.

“That’s a bomb!” And Other Things You Never Wanna Hear From a Plumber

Hubby got home from work at 2.00am Monday morning and found that our hot water cylinder had leaked, creating quite a nice wee lake in our laundry. He had a look to confirm it was the heater, then we dammed it with towels, emailed the property manager with an urgent request for a plumber and went to bed.

The next arvo, the plumber showed up to quote on the job. Full credit to our property manager for rousting out a plumber for same day service! However, when the poor guy walked into the laundry, he took one look at the cylinder and said “Fuck me, that’s a bomb! I’m outta here.”

Reassuring, right?

Eventually he got brave enough to take some photos, in part for the quote but mostly to send to a plumbers journal, and then he retreated to his van where he had a very animated conversation with someone.

Turns out, our cylinder (installed 8 years ago) is warped, bulging, leaking by the electrical panel, and has been plumbed incorrectly. The only pressure release is manual. The good news is that due to the breach, it’s unlikely to explode.

We don’t know what he quoted – it went straight to the property management company. However, clearly the landlords were not happy. One of them showed up here today, with parents in tow, wanting to look at the cylinder herself. We’d been notified that she was coming, but were expecting her to turn up with her own plumber, rather than sightseeing parental units! She took a few photos and left, then liased with hubby via text to arrange for her plumber friend to get a new cylinder and do an install tonight at 7.30pm.

Kind of awkward, since hubs works nights and so he had to shift stuff around because my anxiety is high at the moment and I’m so not up to dealing with strange people in my house alone at night.

And then, at the last minute, she let us know that they couldn’t get the cylinder after all, so it will have to be tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. Le sigh.

So the towel dam is still in place. I guess we’ll have to see whether the water & power bills are affected by this whole affair, because I’ll be damned if I’m paying extra. And this plumber friend better do a damn good job. I’m not super keen on the idea of a bomb in my laundry.