Things to be grateful for
To give you an idea of the kind of day I’ve had, I’ll let you know some of the things I’m grateful for tonight:
- That after N woke me up early this morning because he was covered in diarrhea, when I cleaned him up, he said "back sleep now" and so we both did.
- That our friend invited D over for a playdate this afternoon, so I was able to go grocery shopping while T took N to the urgent care clinic for the horrendous swelling of his genitals that followed (and not the fun kind — he’s 2).
- That another friend went to the grocery store with me so I had company waiting on the huge lines that occur in the DC area whenever a flurry is forecast.
- That when D started puking this evening, he recognized it in time to make it to the bathroom.
- That we had already decided to pass on the party we were invited to this evening, so we didn’t waste the cost of a babysitter.
- That we have a gas stove, so I was able to cook dinner even though half our kitchen lost power.
- That whatever caused us to lose electricity to half of our kitchen this evening corrected itself when we finally decided to unplug the refrigerator and plugged it in on a different circuit. (And yes, we tried flipping the circuit breaker about a dozen times before this. Suggestions for long-term solutions are welcome.)
Good night.
December 3rd, 2005 at 11:07 pm
Yikes, Elizabeth, I’m really sorry you had that kind of day. I’m glad (and admiring) that you’re able to find gratitude in it! I hope D is feeling better by now.
December 3rd, 2005 at 11:35 pm
Wow, and here I’m feeling sorry for myself because our babysitter got mono, and we couldn’t go out tonight. Hope you have a better day tomorrow.
December 4th, 2005 at 11:01 am
How is N? What caused the swelling? Is he better?
Did you get sleep?
BREATHE! Get out of the house today with whomever is healthy and take a walk in the neighborhood.
December 4th, 2005 at 11:28 am
Unless you have recently added new electrical appliances/whatever to the same circuit, I would first suspect the problem is with the refridgerator.
The fridge draws the most current at the moment it actually starts up, so perhaps the compressor motor is going bad or if you’re lucky it is just a case of dirty coils. Until this problem it was not tripping the circuit breaker, but suddenly it is now drawing just over the breaker’s rated limit. When you move it to a less-loaded circuit, that alternative circuit has enough current to spare without tripping the breaker.
I am not an electrician, but I suppose the other alternative is that the breaker itself is getting flaky. If you are a home-repair geek you could swap breakers with another circuit (after killing the main power breaker, of course) and see if the problem migrates to a circuit without the fridge.
…or you could buy an actual multimeter and get hard data, but what fun is that? haha
December 4th, 2005 at 11:42 am
Oh, good grief, Elizabeth! I hope the kids are feeling better — especially poor N — and you have a better day today!
December 4th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
Sounds horrible! Brings me right back to a similar weekend we had a few months ago (right down to taking the 2 year old to the doctor with swollen genitals after diarrhea – ours just had a fungal infection), where the amount of washing we had to do was unbelievable. Although we didn’t have the electricity issues, that must have just put the lid on it.
Hopefully yours will pass as quickly as ours – by Tuesday we were all better, although the psychological scars (mine) will last a while. And hope you and T don’t get whatever lurgi it is.
December 4th, 2005 at 8:49 pm
No suggestions to offer here, but lots of wishes for improved health and more steady power supplies for all of you. And good for D. indeed.
December 4th, 2005 at 11:02 pm
Shit.