Fresh Start

I got up this morning feeling an uncharacteristic eagerness to 'get going' and start work: not just on my resolution, but at my day job. I'm glad the holidays are over and that life as usual is resuming.

I left the office last week only after turning in the project close-out report that officially concluded my project management activity (yet another closure for the new year) as well as my first pass at my self-scoring on my goals and values assessment for Q4. I will arrive at work with a clean slate.

Having only one resolution for this year also helps. Instead of a laundry list of To-Do's, I have a single focus. There are, of course, other actions I can take to help achieve this goal, but they are action steps, not goals in themselves. And I'm finding that making that distinction does make a difference psychologically.

Zot!

Was it just yesterday I posted about my closure on Water and Housekeeping?

I hadn't been home thirty minutes this evening when one of the upstairs girls asked to use our bathroom. This is not an unusual occurrence when someone else is showering upstairs. No problem.

Except that five minutes later she was shouting, "The toilet is flooding!"

I shooed her and my daughter out of the way, determined that the flooding was not ongoing, and fetched Mr. Shop-Vac.

When had someone reversed the hose connection so it blew water instead of sucked it up?

Arggghhh!

I reversed the hose, and started sucking up the water.
And the circuit breaker tripped.
More shrieking from little girls.
I told them to turn off a bunch of lights, then I flipped the breaker and resumed vaccuuming.

I put the fuzzy bath mat in a hot wash, and _storyteller_ (bless his heart) plunged the toilet. Then I started mopping up with a bleach solution. While I was at it, I bleach mopped my entire entry way. When life hands you a flood, use it to clean up, right?

It was only later that I discovered that the electrical outlet that supports all my electronics in my living room: computer, printer, speakers, television, cable box -- and my desk light, was fried when the circuit tripped.

_storyteller_ and I went out and bought a new outlet box, hoping it was just a circuit in there that had burned, but the new one doesn't get juice either.

I can move my laptop, but there won't be any entertainment in the living room until I can get this fixed. And I have no idea how much it's going to take, in time or money.