![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
When It Rains
Jun. 21st, 2014 11:34 pmIt is being one of those sort of days.
The day started with me heading out and cleaning out the minivan in the hope of finding![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daisy_knotwise's keys to both cars that had gone missing on Thursday night after she went on a trip to the Jewel. The keys must have come home with her (or the van would not have started), but they are nowhere to be found.
The situation is complicated by two factors. First, Julie decided to hide Gretchen's keys a few days ago. They were found and Julie swears that she did not hide them this time.
Second, Thursday night was garbage night, so it is not impossible, although extremely unlikely, that the keys somehow ended up in the recycling. Neither Gretchen nor I believes this, but there was an opportunity for the keys to leave the house.
Or to have been hidden by a little girl.
Anyway, Gretchen had ransacked the van on Friday; I ransacked it again this morning and removed all of the possessions and trash. No keys. But having done so, I figured we might as well vacuum it out. Gretchen grabbed the Dirt Devil and we got pretty much everything out before the beater brush froze. Gretchen opened up the hatch and detached the rubber belt, managing to burn her index finger on the overheated mechanism badly enough to raise a small blister.
Later today,samwinolj and Bonnie came out to buy supplies for Picnicon and head with us to the swimming pool. I took Sam out in the yard to ask for his help on some fence repairs (at a later date). While we were out there, I moved the hose onto our recently installed and disastrously underwatered sod patches, underwatered because we had been promised thunderstorms over the last few weeks that had stubbornly refused to show up. The sod is looking perilously close to dead, but we're clinging to hope that some deep watering will improve the situation.
When Sam and I got back from the store, the weather had turned threatening. I checked the weather map, looked outside, and we figured it was time to stay home.
And then the rain hit. A veritable deluge (1.5 inches measured in a nearby town) with high wind and blowing rain.
Then the roof started to leak.
This was a leak that we knew about. Someone had been supposed to come and try caulking around the siding to see if the leak could be stopped. It hadn't leaked during several recent thunderstorms, but this one was too much for it.
So Sam and I moved all of the stuff out from underneath the leak and I dropped buckets in place. *sigh*
Then I went upstairs and called the repair guy, got his answering machine, and suggested that maybe he should come caulk this mess.
We decided to order in Chinese for dinner. I picked up the portable phone downstairs and there was no dial tone.
Ok, so one of the phones was off the hook. We tracked down all five receivers, put them back on their cradles (which hangs them up), and still no dial tone.
I ordered from the Chinese restaurant on my cell phone, and then it was off to the basement to check the hardwired phones, neither of which had dial tone.
The rain had finally abated, so we took one of the phones to the interface box in the back of the house, plugged it in, and verified that there was no dial tone coming to the house. I tried calling the house on my cell phone and got a busy signal.
This was one dead line. It was also the number I'd left for the repair guy, of course.
Then I lost cell service.
Ok, up to the office to dial out to AT&T's 800 number on the VOIP line for work. I bounced around their automated system for a while before being dropped into a very long phone queue. While that was going on, I found the online site and logged the repair request, although there was no place I could find to be very explicit about the "this is your fault; I checked it at the box" situation.
After about 20 minutes on hold, I got a human being and explained that I'd tested this at the box, so it was clearly their problem.
Apparently, they may have a seven day wait to get my phone back.
Oh, joy.
I have kept my POTS service because it's been reliable, even though I'm paying a lot of money for very little service. I'm getting sorely tempted to get one more cellphone and link it to the portable phones via Bluetooth. Of course, I'll have to get an Airave to boost the lousy signal here at the house...
Anyway, it's being that sort of day.
The day started with me heading out and cleaning out the minivan in the hope of finding
daisy_knotwise's keys to both cars that had gone missing on Thursday night after she went on a trip to the Jewel. The keys must have come home with her (or the van would not have started), but they are nowhere to be found.The situation is complicated by two factors. First, Julie decided to hide Gretchen's keys a few days ago. They were found and Julie swears that she did not hide them this time.
Second, Thursday night was garbage night, so it is not impossible, although extremely unlikely, that the keys somehow ended up in the recycling. Neither Gretchen nor I believes this, but there was an opportunity for the keys to leave the house.
Or to have been hidden by a little girl.
Anyway, Gretchen had ransacked the van on Friday; I ransacked it again this morning and removed all of the possessions and trash. No keys. But having done so, I figured we might as well vacuum it out. Gretchen grabbed the Dirt Devil and we got pretty much everything out before the beater brush froze. Gretchen opened up the hatch and detached the rubber belt, managing to burn her index finger on the overheated mechanism badly enough to raise a small blister.
Later today,
samwinolj and Bonnie came out to buy supplies for Picnicon and head with us to the swimming pool. I took Sam out in the yard to ask for his help on some fence repairs (at a later date). While we were out there, I moved the hose onto our recently installed and disastrously underwatered sod patches, underwatered because we had been promised thunderstorms over the last few weeks that had stubbornly refused to show up. The sod is looking perilously close to dead, but we're clinging to hope that some deep watering will improve the situation.When Sam and I got back from the store, the weather had turned threatening. I checked the weather map, looked outside, and we figured it was time to stay home.
And then the rain hit. A veritable deluge (1.5 inches measured in a nearby town) with high wind and blowing rain.
Then the roof started to leak.
This was a leak that we knew about. Someone had been supposed to come and try caulking around the siding to see if the leak could be stopped. It hadn't leaked during several recent thunderstorms, but this one was too much for it.
So Sam and I moved all of the stuff out from underneath the leak and I dropped buckets in place. *sigh*
Then I went upstairs and called the repair guy, got his answering machine, and suggested that maybe he should come caulk this mess.
We decided to order in Chinese for dinner. I picked up the portable phone downstairs and there was no dial tone.
Ok, so one of the phones was off the hook. We tracked down all five receivers, put them back on their cradles (which hangs them up), and still no dial tone.
I ordered from the Chinese restaurant on my cell phone, and then it was off to the basement to check the hardwired phones, neither of which had dial tone.
The rain had finally abated, so we took one of the phones to the interface box in the back of the house, plugged it in, and verified that there was no dial tone coming to the house. I tried calling the house on my cell phone and got a busy signal.
This was one dead line. It was also the number I'd left for the repair guy, of course.
Then I lost cell service.
Ok, up to the office to dial out to AT&T's 800 number on the VOIP line for work. I bounced around their automated system for a while before being dropped into a very long phone queue. While that was going on, I found the online site and logged the repair request, although there was no place I could find to be very explicit about the "this is your fault; I checked it at the box" situation.
After about 20 minutes on hold, I got a human being and explained that I'd tested this at the box, so it was clearly their problem.
Apparently, they may have a seven day wait to get my phone back.
Oh, joy.
I have kept my POTS service because it's been reliable, even though I'm paying a lot of money for very little service. I'm getting sorely tempted to get one more cellphone and link it to the portable phones via Bluetooth. Of course, I'll have to get an Airave to boost the lousy signal here at the house...
Anyway, it's being that sort of day.