nothing and everything

 Nothing is really deeply wrong, at least demonstrably more wrong than the baseline we live now, but I'm also tired and sad about a lot of things:

- Discovered a new crack in the kitchen sink drainpipe last night. This was the PVC pipe the plumber replaced a bit more than a year ago, commenting he thought it was a rat. (Though mice also can gnaw pipe, I looked up.)

I needed my sink. I had to fix the meatballs for the AAUW party and I needed to wash dishes after that. I didn't want to call a plumber (it was after 5 pm at that point). So I started taking the thing apart, thinking "Well, maybe I can put a bucket under here and dump it either in the tub or outside" which is a horrible kludge but whatever. But then, as I unscrewed the PVC nuts, I realized - wait, can't I just take the broken part and go buy a replacement part and just swap it back in? So I ran out to Lowe's. It took a while because Lowe's is a giant anonymous superstore (the small nice hardware was closed for the day, but also, I'm not sure I wanted to risk being mansplained at) but I found it. It took longer to get everything to line up but finally I did it. I have to try today retightening one nut (maybe using my silicone gripper to help me get more torque) because it does drip a tiny bit when I run a LOT of water through it. (Or I borrow a wrench from Dana, and use that, I don't know).

I did also buy "mouse trap bait" - a gel product that's easier to use, allegedly, than almond butter - and I am going to set some of my "bear trap" traps (I don't LIKE killing things but at least these do it instantly, so it's fairly humane) under there in case it was rodents. I don't THINK they are coming for food, though - there was no "sign" left and no evidence of them trying to get into stored food (though that's in a different cupboard) and I'm wondering if they are seeking water as it's been so dry here.

I should feel more triumphant over having fixed for $15 and about a half-hour of my time something that would have cost over $100 to have a plumber out for, but it meant the rest of my evening was ONLY 

- making the meatballs

- washing up

- washing my hair

- doing an essential load of laundry 

No knitting, nothing for "me."

- I also managed to get a quick eye-check-up appointment: realizing it would be more-covered if I did it before the insurance rolled over in January. Luckily my doctor had an opening yesterday afternoon.

I did pick out new glasses, which will be nice. I went with rounder frames this time - it was a pair I took off the rack as a "long shot" and laughed to myself because "hah this looks like Janis Joplin" but you know? they were really cute on, and not any more "overage" than the other frames I was considering (there are only a few types of frames that are 100% paid by our insurance, and since I can afford nicer ones, I go with those, since this is something I wear literally every day, so I need to have something I like). I also suspect I will have better "low down" vision (at the bottom of the glasses) as the frames are larger, and I notice this when I am practicing piano - the music is harder to read as I look up. 

Don't know if they'll be in before I leave for break or not. I hope so, but sometimes the lab they use takes a while, especially with progressive lenses

I also had the tech adjust my current glasses, which had gotten super loose from wearing them with a mask, but she got them too tight and I will need to go back today (I didn't want to push too much - she was SUPER overburdened, she was the only one there and there were four or five people wanting to pick up glasses. And I couldn't tell for sure they were too tight but now I can)

- There's a sewer smell in town this morning. I thought in my house this morning "Dangit, I can still smell that drainpipe after working on it!" (And I had even taken the old one out to the trash) but then I stepped out and was like "whoa it smells like poop out here" and when I got in to campus, the head of Safety e-mailed to let us know it was safe but that the weather conditions (heavy air - high pressure) were trapping the smell from the settling ponds - which I looked up, and they're about half a kilometer from here, and maybe a km from my house, so that would explain it. But ugh, yeah. Like I told a colleague: nothing is really wrong but it just adds to the pile of wrongness.

 At least when my mom's town smells funny it smells like grain or cooking potatoes from the dog food plant (so I have been told) nearby. That's more tolerable.

- Several students "out sick" (one I guess just got cleared to return tomorrow) and I have an e-mail in to the VPAA asking them what we're supposed to do if someone is having to COVID isolate over exam week - grades are due on the 14th. If the person is passing, I can do an Incomplete and have them come back in January and deal with it (whaarrrrgarblll) but if they're a borderline case like a couple of my intro students where they MIGHT pass given exam 5 and the final but are not quite there right now, it seems really unfair to give them a D or an F just because they're sick. 

I mean, I SUPPOSE I could repurpose the exams (different finals) I gave last year over BlackBoard and do that, but....this whole thing is a giant, slow-rolling disaster and it's like we're constantly learning new fail-points, and it's usually the faculty (who lack the authority to make determinations) who find them.

- I'm still super anxious about omicron, and dreading bad news coming out that MIGHT still lead me to cancel my travel, and fundamentally cancel Christmas. There will be no presents, because I'd not want to make my mom go out to the post office in that, and anyway, I'm guessing that given the "holiday slowdown" that was planned, they'd not reach me in time. 

I'm also lower-level anxious that even a trip to the bookstore or the JoAnn's up at my mom's will be off the table (even masked) and that it'll just be 2 1/2 weeks sitting in the house with rare trips to the grocery. Kind of like here. I mean, it would be better than 2020 was here 'cos I'd have her as well, but....I need new shoes, I would like to see the fancy new JoAnn's near her, I would like to hit the bookstore, but that may not be possible. I admit a small part of me is throwing a tantrum over "okay I locked down for like half a year, and limited my doing things for another whole year, and wore a mask everywhere, and got three separate shots, and STILL nothing is much better, I did my part, I should see SOME benefit..."