A Week in Review

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of a Week in Review. I'm all out of witty opening lines, so let's just jump right in.

An unnatural disaster
A pipe broke above the ceiling of our apartment on Wednesday and leaked buckets of water. I got home a little after 8:00 that evening, and when I came through the door could hear something that sounded like rain. Melissa wasn’t home. I was wondering if she left a faucet on, and went down the hall to check the bathroom. That’s where I found the problem. Water was literally running out of the two light fixtures and the fire alarm in the ceiling. The carpet was soaked, and the paint on the ceiling and walls was bubbling. I could see where the water was running behind the paint down the wall. All of the water had shorted out the fire alarm so that it kept beeping. It was a shock, walking in on all of that. I honestly stood there dumbfounded, wondering what to do. Luckily a maintenance man showed up within minutes. He’d gotten a call about a leak in the apartment below us, and came to see if it was coming from our place. Yes, yes it was.

I managed to think well enough to get some buckets and bowls under the leaks while maintenance searched for the problem. They finally found a broken pipe between our ceiling and the floor above us. They cut a big hole in our ceiling to replace the pipe, and then a man with a wet vac came to suck the water out of the carpet. I don’t know how long the water had been running before I got home, but it was enough to saturate that carpet. The wet vac man set up a fan that has something like a tube on it, pulled up the carpet, put the fan so that the tube blew underneath, and it’s been there drying the floor ever since. He said that it might take 48 hours, so I’m hoping that the fan will go today. Then I’ll vacuum over and over until it softens up a bit. Right now the carpet is kind of crunchy. I don’t know how long the hole will be in the ceiling. The maintenance staff really is good, so I bet they’ll have it fixed up soon enough. It’s times like this when I’m very grateful for a maintenance staff. I don’t know what we would have done if we’d left on our own to deal with that mess. I’d probably still be standing there staring at the water coming through the ceiling.

Extreme irritation
I took my car in for its annual inspection yesterday, and the jokers there failed it on the safety test because of a burned out tail light. Honestly! How annoying. Replacing the light won’t be any trouble, but then I have to find another evening after work to go back to the inspection place and have it rechecked and get the renewal. Stupid inspection people. Just give me my sticker already.

Madagascar and 30Rock
Cute Jonah and I went to see Madagascar last Saturday. He has become one of my best movie pals. Whenever there’s a kid’s flick out that I want to see, I tell myself that it would be nice to take Jonah, and his brothers if they want to go. That way it looks like I’m being so nice to the nephews, when really it’s all about me. Anyway, Madagascar was good – very funny. I love those crazy penguins.

I’ve also become a big fan of 30 Rock. I know, it’s been on TV for some time now, but I just recently started paying attention. I watched it last night and laughed out loud for the full 30 minutes. The show’s viewer ratings aren’t very good, so it’ll probably be cancelled now that I’ve fallen in love, just like Arrested Development was (which by the way I’m determined to buy on DVD), but until then you know where I’ll be on Thursday night.

Thanksgiving
I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving! It’s my favorite holiday. I think it has all of the same good things that Christmas has – family, food, the spirit of gratitude, food, some time away from work, food – but is so much more relaxed. There’s no pressure to make Thanksgiving magical. It can just be itself, and that’s enough. I really love it. This year I will be with Barry and Melody and the girls, and will eat all of the potatoes and stuffing my tummy can hold. Mmmmm, I love that stuffing!

I think that’s it for now. I’d like, in closing, to share with you my favorite quote of all time. It’s from Ralph Waldo Emmerson, and goes something like this:

To laugh often and much,
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children,
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends,
To appreciate beauty,
To find the best in others,
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition,
To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived,
This is to have succeeded.

Each one of you have at different times in my life been there to help me breathe easier, some of you at times when I was finding it hard to breathe at all. You should know that I am grateful, and that it’s meant more to me than I can say. Thanks, as always, for everything.

Happy Thanksgiving!
You are loved.