I am having a morning. As I was about to get into the shower I noticed a puddle on the floor where there should not be a puddle, and further investigation revealed a leak in the cabinet under the sink. It has apparently been going on for some time unnoticed. I threw away a set of sopping hair clippers, some half-used boxes of flushable wipes that had been under there ever since I saw some story about them not actually being flushable after all, and a couple open packages of pads that had done their valiant best to deal with the issue. It isn’t a disaster, you see: it was an opportunity to clean out that cupboard! It might also be kind of a disaster. I put a bowl under the pipes, and a fan pointing into the cupboard, and a plumber is coming tomorrow afternoon. We have been meaning to redo that bathroom anyway, and let’s hope we don’t also have to redo the underflooring.
Anyway, then I took a shower, and as I was combing my hair I heard a child say, “Uh oh, cat barf.” A cat had thrown up on the couch instead of on the nice easy-to-clean hardwood, and furthermore the cat had hit BOTH cushions. So I cleaned that up.
Then one of Edward’s braces broke off during breakfast (he was eating a MUFFIN), so I had to call the orthodontist. And it was a wasted call, because she said, “No big deal, we’ll just fix it when he’s here in three weeks.” Which is giving me the stress because it’s the END brace that broke off, the one that holds the wire. But I said so when I called, and she just said, “Is the wire poking him? If it’s poking him, you can snip it with wire snips.” OH OKAY. So…not a big deal, I guess.
*breathes carefully and calmingly through nose*
I did get TWO satisfying things done. One: I completed all the health forms required by Rob’s college-to-be, and then dropped off the physician verification form at the pediatrician’s office for them to verify/sign and fax back to the college. This is the kind of thing I would normally put off until shortly before it was due, and then I would be panicked and stressed, so I am very pleased to be getting it done so uncharacteristically early: it’s not even due until August. I was partly motivated by wanting to beat the rush of all the other parents contacting the pediatrician in August, and partly motivated by redirected plumbing/orthodontic stress.
The other satisfying thing was just a trip to the grocery store, but I really needed to go and I really didn’t want to, so it felt like it counted more than usual.
Oh, rats, one of those mornings. I am glad that you were able to channel the frustration and put it to good use. I am in awe. When I had a full house I would probably had ended crying.
When I woke up this morning at 6:30 as I always do it felt like I was having a morning too. Luckily for me it did not involve leaking pipes and I still had Ambien in my system. I did something I never do: cranked up the AC’s, covered myself with a nice comforter and slept until 10:30. I don’t remember ever, ever sleeping this late.
Something to look forward to, young moms. (It helped that I have no partner and my “babies” have long flown the coop. Even my cat has gone to kitty heaven.)
I was kind of hoping you were going to end with “If only one of my readers would send me clippers that she used when her kids couldn’t deal with the barbershop. The ones she no longer needs because they have a preferred barber and opinions about styles.”
Ha! Luckily I have a second set of clippers: the ones that got wet were the set I couldn’t quite make myself throw away after replacing them. For some reason. Like, why did I keep them, when they were bad enough to replace? I think I was thinking, “What if the new ones immediately break and I wish I hadn’t already gotten rid of the old ones?”—and then the years went by.
I’m sorry about the rough morning. I hate it when it pours like that!
Also, this is EXACTLY what is happening in my linen closet right now. You’ve inspired me to move the old clippers to the donation box in the mudroom. Thanks, Swistle!
You can’t flush “flushable wipes”??! Oh noooooooo….
I learned that after my landlord had to spend a lot of money unclogging our pipes. He was very decent about it too.
Oh, I hate THOSE mornings! But good for you on the productive piece.
I had one of those. 1 year old threw up on me all nite and I had to be in early to lead a meeting. Came home to kids watching TV and huffy husband who complained he was hot so unable to feed kids (I’m not clear on how that’s related ) and didn’t think to shut windows and turn in AC. Then baby WHO WAS FINE ALL DAY threw up on me. Twice.
I’m waiting for something to break/leak because that’s how this works. Still need to finish work for tomorrow at 8.
Make that three times.
Hope you are having an evening of a much improved type.
House robots should be a thing. Actually I guess “the future is now, thanks to science!” and we have Roombas. Picturing a Roomba taking on that cat barf job isn’t pretty, though.
What is it with cats and multiple cushion barfs? We have carpet tile rugs (square foot carpet tiles that piece together to form a rug) so we can easily replace a tile when a cat or child does something unspeakable to it. But it’s never one. The barf is always (ALWAYS) at a tile seam, or even better, right at the intersection of 4 tiles, for maximum destruction.
I hope your week improves Swistle.
I think I already commented this on a recent post of yours, but allow me to reiterate because it’s relevant here, too: every time I housesit for my aunt (which is frequently), her dog throws up in the one carpeted room in her house (and it’s not even a BIG room). The entire rest of her house is either hardwood or tile, but does he ever throw up there? No, he does not.
In my experience, braces breaking off isn’t as big a deal as it seems, even if it’s the wire-holding piece. They just glue it back on and send you on your way. The biggest issue is that the sticking-out part can cause some irritation, but like your orthodontist said, it can just be clipped off. I’ve never heard of anyone clipping it off themselves, though. I thought the orthodontist was supposed to do it.
I can attest, re: braces. As an early teen I pulled one of my braces off while fiddling with it the first day of sleepaway camp. They took me to an orthodontist, who clipped the wire on both sides and said to stop fiddling with my braces. I had it fixed when I got home from camp three weeks later, and no problems ensued at any point.