Fadedwords

Look out North Carolina! Blizzard ‘07 might be heading our way!!

Granted, the “worst” of this is supposed to hit west of Raleigh (although meteorologists in Raleigh are saying that they’re “sure to get snow”), they are even saying that my area in eastern NC is going to get “some snow.”

The funniest part of this is that, being from New York and living in areas that got serious lake effect snow for the last seven years, this is absolutely insignificant to me. Or it would be, if there were snow plows and sand/salt trucks in this ridiculous state. But, alas, there are like 2 in the whole state… so this could create a problem.

I plan on driving to Jake’s tomorrow after work, but only if the roads aren’t too bad. I can’t believe I’m seriously planning my travel around a potential of 4 inches of snow (at most) and a little freezing rain. People here just don’t know how to handle this weather. Jake told me that the stores in Cary were packed with people stocking up on the essentials so they could weather the “storm”.

Brightside is that the highways will likely be relatively untraveled tomorrow, so I’ll have a smooth trip up. *shakes head* This is one of the things I love most about NC.

After not returning last night to cap off the hot water line, which caused another burst pipe, the plumbers actually came today and finished all the repairs. This means that I have hot and cold water, and all new pipes everywhere. The plumber said that the pipes were in as bad shape as he’s seen in recent memory.

Now we just wait and see how awful my water and electric bill are. The water bill is my landlord’s responsibility… but I fear that the electric will be mine, as it was me not unhooking the hot water heater every day that left it running.

*shrug* I can finally sleep easily at night though, and that’s some good news.

…I had just been told by the plumber that they’d “be back tomorrow to start replacing the pipes.” This was last Wednesday or Thursday. At this point I can’t really remember the exact day, just that it was last week. They didn’t show last week. I made it through the weekend, with fingers crossed that the pipes wouldn’t burst. They didn’t, but the pipes that had been “dripping” when the plumber left them began to give off a fine mist over the weekend. Right. So I crossed my fingers harder, and waited until Monday to put in a call to the plumber.

I was told on Monday that the work was scheduled to start on Wednesday morning, but that they “might start Tuesday.” So I went home and checked, and sure enough the leak had gotten slightly worse. It wasn’t too bad though, and I had been told that the work would start in two days at the most.

You can probably guess the rest: they didn’t show Tuesday and they didn’t show Wednesday. I called the office this morning at about 6:40am and left a very angry message. The leak had gotten progressively worse, and huge puddles were forming under the house. Not only that, but my hot water heater was running non-stop… which runs up the electricity bill. They called back at 8:15am and told me that they were going to start the work today and it would be finished tomorrow; this was fine, I was expecting the work to take a day or two because they have to replace all the pipes under the house. So that was fine.

I got home at 3:30 and the leak was worse. The plumber hadn’t been here. I called again and was like “Are they going to start this today or not?” So the receptionist apologized and said they probably wouldn’t start it today, but they’d be here at 7am tomorrow to do the work… and they’d work until it was done. I told her that the leak had gotten much worse over the day, and I needed someone to come cap off the hot water line if they weren’t going to start repairs. So she said she’d get them here to do that.

They’ve been here, and will be back. They need a special part that is on their truck that’s in Creswell (town half an hour away). So he’s coming back when he gets it, and he’s going to cap off the hot water line. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep the cold water so I will have the toilet working. I’ll go to work unshowered tomorrow… which isn’t my ultimate preference but I’ll deal with it. I will double check with him that someone will definitely be here tomorrow first thing to do these repairs, because I don’t want a whole weekend without hot water. I could live without it, but I really really don’t want to.

Long story short, the saga continues. Hopefully tomorrow will be the end of it. I shall keep all interested parties apprised of the progress.

Some days I feel as if I’ve wasted over $30,000 on my education.

I’ve applied for so many jobs in the last month or so, for counseling positions that are “immediately open”. I haven’t gotten one interview. This is a change for me; previously I got interviews for everything I applied for. Now I can’t get anything.

So I just keep on applying and keep on getting knocked down and keep on feeling like crap about everything.

People keep saying, “It’ll get better.” I just want to know when.

Merlin is 4 months old this week. I posted a bunch of new pictures in my gallery, but I thought I’d share one or two here as well.

Laying in front of the Roanoke River

Sitting on one of our favorite over-water perches

He loves the water… we need to get a sailboat.

As you can see, he’s getting very big. He weighed 37lbs at the last vet visit… and I’d guess he’s put on the 3lbs to make it an even 40. I hope to get him enrolled in puppy training very soon. He loves policemen, and we’ve made friends with several of the local officers because we walk by the station on our daily walks. He’s still a little leary about other grownups, but usually warms up after a few moments. So far, he loves kids. He loves the weekend, because we go on two walks a day. In between that, he typically passes out long enough for me to get stuff done and relax!

Even with all of the stress when I first got him, I can honestly say that getting this dog was the best decision I’ve ever made. He’s a wonderful companion, I don’t worry walking anywhere with him, and I know without a doubt that my house and I are safe with him in it.