what a day

* Well, the slow leak in the line to my house is finally fixed. I discovered this the Thursday before Thanksgiving. Didn't want to believe it at first, but there was a tiny bit of water on the driveway, and it had been very dry. So I sighed, called the plumber, and explained. Of course no one could come out right away (we'd had freezing weather, and some people had frozen pipes). So I figured out how to shut the water off from the meter for when I was gone (it was the last thing I did before I drove off Friday afternoon) and I "pre authorized" the plumber to send someone out.

Well, they couldn't get someone out Thanksgiving week (which is also the start of the main deer season here, which is why I think that happened). So finally I called on Monday after I was back: "You're scheduled for someone Wednesday morning." Well, I was in class but since it was outdoors, no big deal.

The plumber did call while I was in class; he'd found the leak (a pinhole, but still, if the amount of water loss he quoted to me was right, it was enough - and you know, my bills had been a bit bigger these past 2 months so maybe this was just slowly developing). He quoted me a price for a fix that was a couple hundred dollars less than I had feared it would be (Well, I was afraid it would wind up over $1000 but it wasn't close to that) so I told him to please fix it, and if it was done when I was still out of class, I'd run by and pay.

It was, and I did. Took me ten minutes. And I'm glad it's fixed. I had fears of the leak getting much worse over night some night and my just totally losing water pressure (I had not noticed a drop in it, but the leak was small enough). Also, since I discovered the leak, I'd been boiling water for drinking and brushing my teeth out of an excess of concern about bacteria getting in (They tell people to do that if there's been a water main break, so....)

* That was weighing on my mind (and other stuff, too) when I was getting ready to go into my 8 am class. Could not get SPSS to work on my office computer (I was prepping it to teach the class something in the computer lab). Said it was expired. I messaged IT but of course no one is in before 8:30 or so and it was an 8 am class. I had gone through this rigamarole earlier in the semester - SPSS claiming the site license was expired and needed renewed - and IT sent me a message of "this is all you have to do" and it seemed to work but apparently it had NOT. I am tired of download-software where if something goes goofy with the site license, or you don't hold your tongue just right when typing in the renewal code, or if your university a bit slow on the draw with renewing, or if just something goes wrong at the originator's end, you can't DO anything.

And I am also tired of having to do other people's jobs. In the past, this was IT's job - they sent someone over to update everything. Now they send a somewhat cryptic e-mail about what you're supposed to do and expect you to take care of it. I had to walk several of my students through it, for example. So I'm doing yet another person's job, but yet, my paycheck is no larger.

I finally stalked off to class, slamming my office door in anger in the process. (This is a bit of a Chekov's gun, or perhaps, Chekov's door slam). Went and taught class (planning to have to do the review I had planned for Friday, but somehow, miraculously, SPSS worked one last time in the lab and now it's no longer present me's problem because we've covered the last of the SPSS stuff)

Came back to my office. Could not unlock my door. These are old locks, we've asked to have them rekeyed after a couple of incidents that showed security in this building is not what it should be, but of course there's no money for it. I went and appealed to my secretary - thinking we'd have to call campus police or even a locksmith. My department chair tried her master key and that worked but I guess now I dare not slam my door in anger. (It reopened well enough when I came back after paying the plumber, and after my second class of the day)

* But the third thing. I am still on tenterhooks about: the pending rail strike. Or maybe it won't be a strike? I guess Congress is trying to act to either get the sick days the unions are demanding or just force them to keep working without them but I've shuttled back and forth between hope and despair these past couple days - I have tickets for the 17th and while the strike would start the 9th and probably would be shut down in a couple days, Amtrak MIGHT pre-emptively cancel the long distance trains fairly far out (apparently they did in September, when this was first a thing) and the thought of missing Christmas with my mom makes me despair. Thanksgiving this year was so rushed, Christmas last year I still wasn't in a fully right mind (between the after effects of living through the horrors of a recent pandemic and worrying about the rodent invasion in my house - that was when my kitchen plumbing got messed up from them chewing on it) and I feel like finally THIS year I can again properly enjoy Christmas.

And oh, on some level I still could stuck here, but....I really want to be with my mom, so much so that I'd give up any gifts I might get if instead I could spend it with her. 

I don't know. Congress did something today but I don't know if it will work or even if the Senate will pass or even act on it. I was really hoping labor and management could work it out without the government getting involved, but at this point - well, I am going to be a little selfish and say I just want this resolved to the point so I can get home for Christmas. (I do not expect, for example, that if there were a strike that prevented my travel on the 17th, that I'd be able to even remotely get a ticket for, say, the 20th, if it were over by then. I would probably just give up and stay here). I've already stated my promise to send $250 to the regional food bank as a cosmic thank-you (even though, after takes, my 'stipend' Christmas bonus was just over $200, the stated amount was $250, so that's what I'll give).

I did also buy one additional Christmas gift for my mom - I arranged for some packets of smoked salmon and trout to be sent to her from a good, well-reputed PA NW seller. If I'm there, we can enjoy at least one of them together; if not, she'll have them as an additional "interesting food" through the winter. (They are long-life - vacuum sealed and heated so they are shelf stable for at least a year). I'm doing this, sort of picking up the mantle of my dad, because I get that now she gets fewer presents that he's gone, and my pair of socks and cowl seemed a little small to me. 

But I am very much hoping something works out. (Because an extended rail shutdown might also jeopardize electricity in many places (coal), safe drinking water in many places (chlorine), food deliveries, some mail deliveries, gasoline price/availability (ethanol) and so it would just be a series of compounding miseries and I don't think we need to go through some of what Ukraine is dealing with right now for us to be able to sympathize with them, and I frankly have no desire to live through that kind of insecurity again - spring 2020 when groceries were spotty were bad enough for me.)