A Pretty Crazy Day

After a weekend characterized by unseasonably warm temperatures, the temperature has plummeted this week- to the extent that we experienced a wind-driven snow in the wee hours of the morning and many people awoke to cars that needed to be hit by the ice scraper. I had the day off, and was lounging around the house when the power went off- the neighborhood was hit by an unexplained power outage. After ascertaining that several of my neighbors had called the electrical utility, I decided to head over to the local public library so I could plug in the old laptop and avail myself of a benefit I gladly pay for.

When I got home a couple of hours later, the power had come back on, but I decided that my time would better be spent napping before working the night. I slept about an hour and a half, when my department head called me to tell me that my presence would be needed at a different site than my usual one, because we have a small crew of technicians working on a big spring fundraiser, and that there would be i's to dot and t's to cross when they leave. I'm an i-dotter and a t-crosser... it's my raison d'etre. While throwing together a quick breakfast, I heard my landlord's distinctive laughter coming from outside, so I stepped out so say hello. For the record, the landlord is a great guy, and I have come to value his friendship. He had been planning to sell the house (it's a three-family house, but he moved out a couple of years ago when he bought his uncle's house)- he's had a couple of deadbeat tenants in the last couple of years, and one apartment is currently vacant (the tenants scarpered off, leaving no forwarding address). He is planning on sticking it out, and giving any new tenants more scrutiny.

After shooting the breeze with the landlord and the top-floor tenant, I realized that I'd have to shake a leg because I had to pick up the company phone from my usual jobsite. I wanted to make sure I left myself plenty of time to travel to take into account the detour. Right now, I'm sitting in the office, drinking some coffee left over from the afternoon crew... the head technician (he's a contractor) told me to avail myself of his Keurig machine (he's also a very nice guy), but I'm not down with the multiple plastic cups necessitated by the machine. I can no longer drink bad beer, but bad coffee is okay with me... I can drink java that's been used to wash dogs, and the stuff in the pot is not nearly that bad.