Wednesday, November 18, 2009

No good deed...

...goes unpunished.

Okay - so Wednesday has never been my best day. All kinds of rotten things seem to happen on "hump" day. (I think of Wednesdays as humpff days.)

It was bad enough that I had an appointment for a checkup at 8:15 am. I figured I'd be out of there by, say, 9:00 or 9:15 and have plenty of time for the drive up to Tallulah Falls for my demo day at the Center. But as I was still sitting in the very chilly waiting area at 8:55 am, I called to get someone else to go and open up for me.

I finally get out of there at about 10:00 and head for the Toccoa post office to pick up a package that has been waiting there for me since Saturday. That accomplished, I head up the mountain, figuring to stop for gas at a station near the top of the climb. As I turn into the station, my van stalls. This is not good. I let it glide to a stop and try to start it, but it it immediately dies again. Now I freak. A million half-formed thoughts and solutions race through my head, each shorting out when they run up against the tiny balance in my checking account. No money for towing, no money for repairs, no way to get the damn thing home without busting me completely.

After about ten minutes of stewing, I decide I must get it home somehow. I turn the key, stomp on the gas, and it roars to life. I put some gas in, call my friend Carol, and start for home advising Carol of my progress in case I get stranded. It stalls once more but restarts and I make it!! The dogs greet me - my three sitting for their pats - and Bad Dog by jumping on me with muddy paws. I'm all (well, reasonably) relieved and happy. I call my mechanic, and the Center, and cancel all my Wednesday and Thursday obligations.

I have to borrow some cat food from close neighbor and friend Carol, as I was afraid to stop on the way home. She comes right over and then leaves with Bad Dog following along. Ten minutes later she's on the phone to me. Bad Dog has clambered under her house and somehow managed to break or knock loose a pipe. Water - HOT water - is streaming and spraying everywhere, and Bad Dog won't come out from under there. As her water comes from my well, this is another thing that is not good. I tell her to turn off the water, and I put on boots and sweats and fetch the pvc pipe repair kit.

Sure enough, there is steaming water flowing out of a disconnected pipe joint. We turn off the hot water heater and drain it completely, make the repair, and get Bad Dog out from the scene of the crime. We replace the barrier to the crawl space that had been removed by Carol's son-in-law when he came to do a pipe repair!

So who's to blame? Me for letting the dog stay? Carol for being followed home? Bad Dog for being a dog? The son-in-law who didn't put the barrier back?

Nope.

It's just a Wednesday thing. Luckily, it comes only once a week.

7 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. And I thought Mondays were bad! (I had to delete my earlier post - I apparently can't tell the difference between Mondays and Wednesdays.)

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  3. Hmmm... Somebody seriously needs to come and claim Bad Dog; he's wreaking havoc!

    My Wednesday was fine (knock on wood!).

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  4. Not a good idea to think in piles (of trouble). Too self-defeating. But in my book, the Blame Game is perfectly acceptable. Of course, you're never to blame, and you can't blame Wednesdays without facing them every single week. You know it's not poor Carol's fault, and blaming the dog is a simple-minded cliche. However, sons-in-law will always be culpable and guilty as sin.

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  5. Glad you got home safely and all days can be problematic, but at least we are still here to have them. Bad dog is a good dog and just is in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least I think so.

    Hope your days are now doing well.

    God bless.

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  6. Ohhhh.....the domino effect! I'm always stunned and amazed when things like this happen. Sometimes the world just roars out of control. And there's not a thing we can do about it. (Well, at least now we can blog about it!)

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  7. I'm sad at being one of the Thursday plans that got canceled and sorry about the problems, but I did get a chuckle!
    So glad that BD is now GD.

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