Woken by rain.

I'm not sure I ever wrote about this before, but in the winter of 2011 our bathroom had two leaks coming from the ceiling. There was one leak coming through the vent thing over the tub (which convieniently dripped into the tub) and one through the light fixture beside the tub (which required a bucket). I quickly realized that the leak only came when I heard the upstairs neighbors using the toilet and then flushing. But the leak started dripping before the flush.
 
***

          Lights up.

The audience hears the sound of the upstairs neighbor peeing.

Drips begin coming through ceiling at a rate of more than one per second.

Toilet flushes.

Drips continue for a while, then slow to a stop.

          Blackout.

***

So....yeah. Gross.

Well. This morning the sound of running water woke me up.

The coup continues.

Well, it's clearly not over, this rebellion of my belongings.

My computer arrived at work today, and since I wasn't working today at the office, I drove to pick it up so I would have a back-up plan if my old computer decides to stop working again before the translation is finished. I had my coins ready to stick in a meter, but no metered spots were available near my office. Then I saw there was a loading zone spot. I thought, huh, I am here to pick up something for 2 minutes, this is exactly what this spot is for! So I parked and ran in to get the computer and was back out super quickly. I was unlocking the passenger door to put the computer in, and my key broke off in the lock.

My possessions are staging a rebellion.

So. My laptop broke on Monday night late, and I had to buy a new one on Tuesday because I have a freelance translation contract to finish for Friday. It was supposed to be delivered Wednesday, but it was not.

On Tuesday I came home and walked in the door and the lights wouldn't work. I thought it was the light bulb. I tried two and determined that it wasn't. Then I thought it might be the fuse. (The fuse box is a mystery to me because it is the old kind of fuses because the apartment is 100 years old.) After someone else checked for me (and I made notes of which fuses do what!), I know that all the fuses are fine.

The process of elimination revealed it is a problem with the contact in the lamp itself (for one of the non-working lamps) and a timer explained the other non-working lamp. The timer is now adjusted and that lamp works now.

Wednesday night I tried to go to meet someone to borrow a laptop to use until the new one arrives and to see if there was anything to be done for the broken one. I got in my car and turned on my windshield wipers. They started up then stopped in the middle of the windshield on the first swipe. So I couldn't drive anywhere because driving any significant distance without windshield wipers in winter in Québec is just not wise.

Since July 4

Light bulbs that have blown: 4
Fuses that have blown: 1
Splinters received from walking barefoot on the wood floor: 2
Days that have passed without crying: 1
Movies watched: 0
Times I have made waffles: 2
Original vintage windows that have decided to no longer open: 1
Trips to the grocery store: 1
Birthdays: 1
Weddings attended: 1
Books read: 2
Favorite pens that have run out of ink: 2
Journals filled: 1
Times I have bought myself flowers: 1

Not cat-proof.

I had wanted to find a cat-proof solution for my plants this summer. So I was thinking of vertical hanging bags. But then S came up with this free solution using stuff we had already. Not as pretty as what I had envisioned, but it was okay with me and probably easier. And I liked that it was re-purposing the shelves the previous renters had left when they moved and did not clean all the random stuff and trash out of their/our storage unit. So...it seemed like a good idea.

I thought it was cat-proof. I mean, I didn't think there was enough room to walk around the pots on the shelves. I wanted to ask S to help me move the shelf to be centered in between the windows so that it was not close to either window sill, but that didn't happen before everything fell apart. So the shelf has stayed in its location.

It is clearly not cat-proof. 

That's Pippi on top of one of my my non-flowering daisy plants. 

I bought these daisy plants back in May. Well, they are supposedly daisies, but there are no daisies at all. I have two pots of leaves. Just leaves. Leaves that I try to remember to water. They appear to be pretty comfortable.

The daisies are refusing to bloom this summer. Maybe it is an act of solidarity?

Pippi is not this cat's real name. It's just what I named her. Her real name is probably, you know, a French cat name. But, even so, she seems to like the name Pippi too. She comes when you call her by it.

Does anyone else name the neighborhood animals you see around and then actually talk to them using their not-real names?

Pippi did not seem to mind too much that I got in her face with a camera.

At least someone is getting some pleasure out of the no-daisy daisy plant.

 

 

An update of sorts.

• Earlier this summer I was fired up to write a post about how I was seeing a lot of rudeness in society these days. But....eh. I decided not to.
• This is partially because we escaped away from it all and spent a month in Australia. A month in Australia can do remarkable things, including reducing levels of annoyance.

Photo credit: S

Photo credit: S

• See? It does wonders.
• The jet lag I had after coming back was the worst I've ever had. It took me ten days to get back on our Canadian time zone. But hey, it was fun staying up to dawn again; it had been an unbelievably long time since I'd done that.

Winter.

On Saturday morning, we woke up to snow for the first time this season. My reaction? "Snow! SNOW! It SNOWED! There is snow covering the ground! Yay, it's snowing!" I excitedly planned the day's outfit around my new winter boots that I bought last year when they went on sale in February, but then hadn't yet worn because it never snowed enough after that to merit wearing them. (The same story goes for the snow shoes I got on clearance last January. Sigh.) Anyhow, since February I had been looking forward to wearing them because they are functional and stylish, which is almost impossible to find in a winter boot. (They are red-brown with a combat boot vibe and an abstract circular embroidery design on the side. Definite attitude.) So I decided that Saturday was finally the day to wear them out on their maiden voyage. I felt ready to embrace the fun of winter! As I had hoped, the boots were warm, but not too warm, even when I wore them inside a couple of hours. They are the perfect winter boots to balance out my blizzard-worthy (probably even artic appropriate) boots that are fabulous (and the best I have ever owned- I love them!), but sometimes they are just a little over the top for day-to-day average snow. And a little too warm to keep on for long once inside. But on Saturday, I felt prepared for winter. After all, as the Norwegians say, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing.

Yesterday, we went out to drop my car off at the garage to switch from regular tires to the snow tires, get the brakes fixed, and have an oil change. Within a few steps of the front door, I fell on the ice. (And yes, sadly I was wearing my new winter boots.) S pointed out that I had the spectacular ability to fall on the only patch of ice in sight. Though, to my defense, I pointed out numerous other places of sidewalk covered in ice. Thankfully, it was a pain-free fall and I continued to (carefully!) walk the half-block to my car, where I discovered that my side mirror had been knocked off and was dangling only by the electrical wiring, with a dislocated spring awkwardly jutting out like a broken bone. Evidently, it was victim of a hit and run by a sidewalk snow clearing machine. Though this was irritating, I quite like all the snow removal and winter machinery here, and we were literally on the way to the garage anyways, so I was only slightly grumpy about it.

Since the car was covered in snow, we began to look for a snow scraper in my car and realized it must be in the trunk. This is when we discovered the lock to my trunk was frozen. An annual occurrence in recent years, I suspect it will probably stay this way most of the winter, necessitating many months of awkward climbs over the back seat to release the lock of my hatchback trunk. (Or maybe just the inability to use the trunk all winter.) But what is worse than that is that sometimes all of the car door locks freeze. Last winter, there was about a week where I couldn't get in to my car at all. Not even when I used that anti-freeze liquid stuff. When S got back from the trip he was on, he solved this problem by buying a propane torch that we began to carry with us when we drove places, so we would be able to get in the car. The torch method worked well and we found it pretty hilarious to go over to someone's house, bringing our blow torch with us so that we could get back into to the car to go home again.

Ah, winter. Yesterday's trio of winter negatives surprised me since it was only day two of snow. But instead of holding a grudge, I guess I might as well try to welcome you since you are here to stay anyways. And I will embrace the urges for hot cocoa, fresh baked cookies, and fleece socks caused by the thought of blow torch weeks and the unworking heater in my car that has been repaired yearly for the last three years. But at least I have good boots. And cookie dough in the freezer, ready at a moment's notice.

Edit: Just found out that fixing the side mirror at the garage will be $60. For a used replacement mirror. Grrr. Makes me want to duct tape the old one back on.