Two Weeks of Insane

Have you ever, in this Modern Life, scheduled yourself and looked back.  When you look back you think "What was I thinking?"

... to put it mildly?

That's us.

We've gone through the drama with the pitbull attack.  This caused a visit by the local police, the Code Enforcement group, and the Broward County Animal Control. 

It was followed by a phone interview for a position at an organization for which I would very much like to work.  I have always been a "generalist" in technology.  A sort of "hired gun".  My bosses learned that they could say "I have a problem, lets give it to Bill, He'll figure it out!".

And I would.

After that finished, there was the preparation.

Not for a position that I don't have and have to write a heart felt thank you letter, but for what is happening at the house over the next two weeks.

Barring any more visits from the Local Constabulary, we shall be having work done.  

Plumbers, Cable TV, and Tree trimmers... Oh my!

Cable TV because Comcast on its best day is creaky.  It works because of force of habit.   You see there is this Database that I need to connect to so I can do some work with Access and Excel.   It's not in the house on a friendly computer.  It's out there ... in the wild! 

Boo!  Eek!

Without that so-called fast internet connection, you can't do "Data Analysis" on a "test database" that isn't on a server in the house.  Like Homer Simpson says "Web goes up!  Web goes down!" 

Where's my any key?

Plumbers?  When your hose pipe outside decides to drip you can ignore it only for so long.   Since the coldest temperature we have ever had here since I moved to Wilton Manors was a mere 1 degree C above freezing, that's 34 degrees 'Murican, we don't have to worry about that nasty cracked pipe thing that "y'all gits up North".  On the other hand when your sewer pipe has a beautiful break in it, it tends to subside the beach sand that the house is built upon. 

Yes, I am going to have people digging under my house to fix pipes.  You mean this doesn't happen where you're from?  Oh it does, just wait.  Eventually that pipe that was laid in 1955 to your split level tract home in suburbia will crack.  When it does, you will run a washer and hear it echo in your kitchen sink and wonder.   Wonder whether your car in the driveway will fall into a hole.  It's just that the clay that the homes in the Northeastern US are built on take longer to subside than our beach sand on top of a Coral Ridge.

Make sure you have breakfast early and that coffee so you can use your "facilities" before the plumbers arrive!  It takes an hour to run a Hot Laundry so set up a timed wash to be finished at 6AM so you can run a second before they get here!  

Tree trimmers?  Oh yes of course!   There is this monstrosity of a Sea Grape in the back yard.   40 feet tall full of leaves that look like small dessert plates.   Limbs as thick as a fat baby's arm.  They grow "due up".    We shall have a giant pile of limbs out there and will call it Harvey.  As long as the tree survives and doesn't get cut below 15 feet, we will remain legal.   I don't want the tree to go, just to be more manageable.  I don't want it to become a navigation hazard for passing airplanes, nor a guide for the incoming aircraft into Fort Lauderdale International Airport.   I'm quite happy to help, I just don't want to cause a problem, here, let me lower this monster.

Got your tiny violin out yet?   Playing "My Heart Bleeds For You"?

I guess you do this sort of thing all at once, lance the boil, let the pus run clear.  We'll be doing that with the house.   Getting caught up on Deferred Maintenance can be entertaining.  It had better be, that's what's happening here for the next two weeks.   When it's through we can flush in comfort, surf websites in speed, and see the roof of the shed clearly without catching a low flying Cessna.

So how is your week going?  I'll just make sure this goes out before ... oh noes, here's the plumber!  Gotta Go!