That's a mystery...

So, leaving the house this morning, I stumbled over an Amazon box that had been left on my porch. (Luckily, the UPS guy put it in a plastic bag, as it's raining here. I don't have a working doorbell so I don't always hear UPS when he comes)

There were two boxes. One was the copy of "The Black Count" (a story about the father of Alexandre Dumas, which "Friar" reviewed and that looked so interesting to me I wanted to read it. (Especially since I read "Georges" - a novel by Dumas - a couple years ago and really enjoyed it, and was actually surprised to learn of Dumas' African heritage...) That will probably be spring-break reading for me, it looks like a good book for a long train trip.

But the other - it was a copy of a book about Beatrix Potter's world, off my Amazon wishlist. And this one had a gift note - it was from my sister-in-law, and presumably also from my brother and niece. So I don't know who sent me the piano music book, slow-cooker book, and fingerless mitts book. It's POSSIBLE they sent it - entirely possible my brother and sister in law didn't coordinate on gifts (esp. since she was away at meetings during the time frame it would have been ordered). But - if you were the one who sent me the mystery gift, thank you, and if you want to do a "big reveal," go ahead and e-mail me.


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Otherwise, this is apparently The Day of Breaking. When I went to open one of the blinds in my living room this morning, a couple of the thin cords snapped (well, one had been frayed) and I'm going to have to make a Lowe's run to replace it. (I HOPE they still carry that kind. I remember what a fight it was to change out the hardware for those when I put them up and I don't want to change it again. They were Levolor, so if Lowe's doesn't have them maybe I can order some). Also I don't want to replace all four if I can get away with it.

And then, when I came in to the office: no internet connectivity. No ability to check my e-mail (luckily there were no last-minute before-the-exam questions from students). It did finally come back, but it took a while. (And it was probably down overnight, one of my students said she had tried to get in to BlackBoard very early this morning and could not)

And finally: when I could get my e-mail, a note from my chair: the boiler that supplies heat to our offices (the entire older part of this building) failed a state inspection - so we will have no heat until it is replaced. (siiiiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhhh). Hopefully that will either happen very soon, or tomorrow's weather will be the last gasp of cold weather for the winter. There is cold air blowing down on me right now. I THINK perhaps after my class that lets out at 12:15, I will head back home to do my journal-article-reading THERE, where I can set the heat to be whatever I want, and I can have a nice cup of tea while I read. (She did say that they were apparently relaxing the prohibition on space heaters - as long as we are "safe" about it - for now)

(I guess I should be glad that the failure happened now and not in January. That would have been rough.)

That's three things broken (well, one is fixed, and hopefully, one can be replaced this afternoon - the blind) so hopefully that means it's smooth sailing for a while.

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Despite all that - the more I think about it, the more I like what I said about myself yesterday: that I am 'just the right amount of serious.' I can be a little silly when it's appropriate (see last night's post) but I get stuff done when it needs getting done.

And also, on a more metaphysical plane: I was probably made this way for a reason. The generally-positive things in one's nature should probably not be fought against, because, as I said, there are probably Reasons for them we cannot fathom. (I would not say, for example, that a tendency to lie is something a person should just roll with, or things like that - I do think we should work against our baser tendencies and strive to be better than we are). But generally taking things seriously that should be taken seriously, like work and responsibilities and treating people with respect, that's a positive thing and I should embrace it fully, rather than wishing I was more "fun." 

Edited to add: I think the guy who draws The Awkward Yeti probably has a fair amount in common with me, a lot of his comics speak to me. Like this one: