Kay's Bad Day...

I felt like a free & fun dancer, before the bad day.  
Online capture.

My BAD DAY actually went on much longer than a day--perhaps two weeks--but because the reader's time is limited, it is being compressed into ONE DAY...mine...but other people know about it and were involved. Margaret Scott's wonderful drawings are featured.

Cut to the Chase:  Two things --WENT on--simultaneously.... One, a stopped up kitchen sink...slow or no drainage. I was using a plumber’s helper—and saying, you know---SUCK, Drain…damn it!  Two, taking care of a neighbor's cat and bringing their mail inside the house while they were away for five days or so.

About the first issue.  Stopped-up Kitchen Sink.  My cats, especially Camilla, accepted my frustration, as usual, with her Buddhist-like calm.  Yes, professional help eventually came after reporting the problem, but I was reticent to tell the owners in the big house...trying to solve it myself...thinking I had caused the problem. You know, the fear and guilt thing! So, the plunging went on for about a week.

 

Camilla as stoic observer

Flushing Out the Story.  OK...cut to Rite-Aid Drug Store. Having decided I would solve the kitchen sink issue myself rather than reporting it to the landlady, I decided to buy a new Plumber’s  Helper and such luck!  I found one on sale and tested it on the Drug Store floor for suction. It worked, and then some!  It stuck to the point that I couldn’t pull it out...laughing quietly and doubled up in laughter, quietly...I left it there on the floor, bolt upright and waiting for someone to pull it out. I wondered if the whole thing had been video-taped...

Drawing by Margaret Scott.

So, I picked up a second Plumber's Helper and carried it around in the store, together with some other items until my arms were almost full.  Then, while getting some minor cosmetic item, I thought, “Well if I can’t get pull it out from the floor, maybe the same thing will happen in the sink!”  It was very late in the day with little sleep. So, I planted the second HELPER in the cosmetic section and walked, with feigned confidence to the check out...drove home, and continued to plunge using the original one. .

Losing the Key to my Neighbor's House (Second story):  As mentioned, above, I was taking care of things at a friend's house next door while they were on travel...feeding Jeeves the Cat and picking up the mail and taking it inside. 

Things next door were going well until late afternoon (getting dark) on the second day of my week-long "duty," and a girl friend was coming over for dinner.  As usual, I was multi.tasking just before her arrival with several things in my hand 1. The key chain ( with an Eiffel Tower charm on it...and maybe from...oh god, the real place); 2. My cell phone and making a last-minute call and 3. Blue re-cycle bin papers and plastic stuff. 

Drawing by Margaret Scott.

You guessed it!   YES!  I threw the neighbor's key into the deep,  completely filled, BLUE RE-CYCLE bin!   

Bottom Line:  I could NOT, ever, tell my friends next door what I had done...at least that was foremost in my mind.   My dinner-friend pulled up and I was already crazily tossing stuff from the re-cycle bin onto the ground in a mad search for the key! It soon turned dark, and no key. My friend turned her SUV lights on and we continued, going through EVERY item in the bin. What a great appetizer--having to dig through a bunch of stuff.  We gave up.

 I called a neighbor who, fortunately, had a key to the house next door. The friend and I went in, checked the cat, delivered the day's mail...and came back to my place for dinner.

 The following morning, I went online and ordered an Eiffel Tower, thinking I could cover my mistake...but it turned out to be a cheap button type (plastic)...and, in fact, has still not arrived.

Turning Point:  The next morning after ordering the silly flat Eiffel Tower key chain online, I went outside in the dark to view the evening's residue on the ground--and lodged in the guilty part of my soul.  In the dark—I put my hand on some wet leaves in the area where the blue re-cycle bin had been!  There it was: The key chain with the Eiffel Tower charm on it had NEVER fallen into the Re-cycle bin. It was my worst-case assumption that it had. Lesson:  Don’t assume the worst.

Fall-out : I reported the stopped up sink to the landlady--should have done that right away. She called a plumber, a nice man who investigated the situation the first day, then came back the next morning with a snaking apparatus. He dug for 3 hours--hum of the motor--while I remained in the house, going out into the cold in intervals to ask him about probable cause and how things were going.  

Much later, after the water was flowing once again, he told us that the stoppage was due to a root in the main drainage system and never had anything to do with my sink. Another lesson: Don’t feel guilt and pain unless it is warranted. Maybe not even then. It's just money...well, skip that one. Of course that matters!

Second Fall-out:  Due to the repetitive and vigorous plunging,  I injured my right finger. In fact, the whole hand was very painful, so I sought the service of a doctor.   Over now.

Lesson: Respect yourself. If necessary, seek help. Get a cortisone shot. Then, let it go because it’s all so funny.  And it could have been worse.
 Senryu:

Yes, trust your instincts,
but get help when you have to...
spring is coming soon!

2010, but it should repeat in 2012.

Blog: Kay Weeks
Art:  Margaret Scott
2.17.12