Our Week

 

   The week didn't start well. While changing a light over the stove, C saw a flash. The clock on the microwave was gone and the inside light didn't come on when the door was opened. C checked all the things he could check. It seemed our trusty microwave had bit the dust. When I looked inside the microwave, I saw a sticker that said it had been manufactured in 2000. Twenty-one years is a good run for any appliance. Time to replace.

   The challenge is that it is a brand that is no longer made. C would have to try to figure out the closest thing to what we have and arrange for its purchase and installation. I worried that it might be wired in. That would complicate matters, we would need and electrician to install the microwave. I told C that he should do whatever he thought was best.

   I was having a stressful time at work. I am the main immunizer at work. We had many appointments for vaccines from people who had to be vaccinated in order to comply with vaccine mandates. Most of them were very angry and let me know it. On one hand I can appreciate their feelings. No one likes being forced to do anything. On the other hand, there are a lot of things we have to comply with for our jobs or for school. In order to attend public school I had to be vaccinated against several diseases. These vaccines had to be up to date when I went to college. I've had a few jobs that required me to submit to a drug test. I didn't like it and I thought that it was unnecessary. I did it anyway. Some of them also required a background check. I didn't like that either as it seemed like a gross violation of privacy. All they really need to know is if my pharmacy license is in good standing.  Part of me wanted to tell these people to put on their grown up pants and deal with it. There are worse things in life. (Like having a coworker learning how to vaccinate hit your arm bone with a syringe.)

   C was feeling stressed about the new storm door he ordered. We had paid for it and it hadn't come it. He wanted to have it installed before it started snowing. He spent several mornings calling trying to get a hold of someone who could tell him where our door was and when it would be in. 

   He also wanted to get the snow tires on his car.  He wanted to get it done at Costco and  made multiple calls for an appointment but no one would answer the phone. He got very frustrated. After a couple days, he got a hold of someone. He couldn't get an appointment for this week, but could get one for next week. He would rather have them put on sooner, but he had no choice. Like everyplace else, Costco is shorthanded.

   My mother moved out of her townhouse in Small Town to a senior apartment complex. I took some of the things that she no longer wanted. One of those things was a small glider rocking chair. We can always use another comfortable chair at our house. The challenge is to get it from her townhouse to our house. We tried putting it in C's car. On paper it looked like it should fit. In reality it didn't. We'd need to find someone with a truck or SUV to help. Preferably an SUV since it was going to rain the rest of the week.

   Yesterday things starting turning around. Rick, our "son-in-law", stopped by because C had reached out to him. He looked at our microwave and saw the wood panel above it. He removed the panel and revealed the outlet where the microwave was plugged in. He unplugged the microwave and asked C to plug his phone into the outlet. There was no power. C and Rick went downstairs to the circuit breakers. Sure enough one of them was tripped. Rick flipped in back on again and there was power to the outlet. He plugged in the microwave. It worked. 

   Then C got an email that the door was in. Our neighbor took him to pick it up. 

   C asked for help getting the rocking chair on our church Facebook page. Several people reached out to him offering to help. He'll be picking it up later this afternoon. 

   Yesterday most of the people who had vaccine appointments wanted booster shots. None of them were angry. I also figured out an easier way to send our controlled substance order.

   It started out rocky, but things are getting better.