Stress relief
Mar. 3rd, 2005 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebLately I think I've been stressing myself out with trying to get so many things done. There are so many things I want to do, but I just don't have time for everything. I'm to the point where there are often two or three things I know about that I want to do that are going on at the same time, and in addition I want to be catching up on reading all the books that have been recommended to me, keeping up with the reading and homework for the class I'm auditing, and practicing the crochet I'm learning. Not to mention paying bills, doing laundry, etc.
Then at work, I'm trying to do a lot, too. And I'm not even mentioning the incident where a colleague screwed up in passing out papers, so I had to help her finish. Four times! The same way! No, I'm not mentioning that because that would be petty.
Also, I haven't been able to fall back to sleep after Robin's been waking up at 4 am to get to work by 5, so that probably doesn't help. Finally, yesterday afternoon, I could not wrap my brain around any kind of problem at all at work. Fortunately, none of the problems were urgent, so I did some cleaning. Which was well overdue anyway. My office is now 1/2 clean, which is great.
And the whole time I was fantasizing about how I was going to go home and either go to bed or do some equally important clean-up stuff and then go to bed.
I get home and unlock the door. Mmm, smells like Robin's cooking us some dinner.
I step into the house. No. There's smoke everywhere. I drop things and start looking for flames. I find nothing. The burners are off. The oven is off. It's not the coffee maker. The bathroom heater is off. There's no smoke coming out of the computers.
Finally, I feel that the kitchen is the warmest room in the house. The oven is the warmest part of the kitchen. I open the oven and see and feel that it is on full blast. Basically, it's in self-cleaning mode. (I'm not sure if my oven has a self-cleaning mode, but all previous encrustations had burnt away by this point.) Did I mention that the oven was off? I turn the knob to various temperatures and back off. Nothing.
I found a book telling me how to fix appliances. What to do if an oven won't turn off is actually one of the things it includes! I am supposed to get into the range and replace the selector switch. I've gotten into the range before--on my stove, you pull off all the knobs in front, pull out all the metal rods holding the knobs in place, then lift the top and prop it up like the hood of a car. But the metal rod attached to the oven knob won't come out.
So I read the book again. It says first unplug the stove. Duh. (Did I mention that my brain is not working?) I unplugged it. Then I tried to turn off the gas. It won't budge. Nevertheless, after a few minutes, the oven did go off. Robin came in, tried forcing the gas valve, found WD-40, and turned the gas off. Whew!
An oven that turns itself on super high for hours is scary. My oven is also 30 - 40 years old. (No, it's not harvest gold or avocado green, but brown. The range hood is harvest gold with little orange flower shelf-paper cut-outs stuck all around, though, so that counts.) And I can't get the burners properly unclogged. So, I've decided not to mess with trying to fix it. This is the excuse I've been looking for to replace the oven with an even older oven, namely, a Chambers stove. Check out the Chambers Stove Lovers Website for pictures.
Our latest redecorating plan is this: All white appliances (cheaper and easier to find than cool colors like red or black). Red cabinets (they're painted anyway, so there's no hope of glowing wood tones anyway). (Sally--we want the same fabulous red that y'all painted the little bathroom bureau.) Black counter tops. Black-and-white checkerboard floor. It will be marvellous.
Of course adrenaline build-up is not the quickest route to stress relief. We went out to eat. I read through junk mail so I could get it into the recycle bin. I went to bed at 10. Fortunately, Robin's schedule has been changed again already. Now he gets to work Monday through Friday, 7 to 3:30. So at least I got plenty of sleep.
Still I'm finding myself nodding off at work. So I may not make it to cha cha class tonight, let alone quickstep, which I don't even particularly like. (Yes, because I still suck at it.) And I won't be doing anything about this breaking news I just got: "Word on the street is that Skate World at 9:30 tonight is the place to be for Swing Syndicate dancing on roller skates."
Then at work, I'm trying to do a lot, too. And I'm not even mentioning the incident where a colleague screwed up in passing out papers, so I had to help her finish. Four times! The same way! No, I'm not mentioning that because that would be petty.
Also, I haven't been able to fall back to sleep after Robin's been waking up at 4 am to get to work by 5, so that probably doesn't help. Finally, yesterday afternoon, I could not wrap my brain around any kind of problem at all at work. Fortunately, none of the problems were urgent, so I did some cleaning. Which was well overdue anyway. My office is now 1/2 clean, which is great.
And the whole time I was fantasizing about how I was going to go home and either go to bed or do some equally important clean-up stuff and then go to bed.
I get home and unlock the door. Mmm, smells like Robin's cooking us some dinner.
I step into the house. No. There's smoke everywhere. I drop things and start looking for flames. I find nothing. The burners are off. The oven is off. It's not the coffee maker. The bathroom heater is off. There's no smoke coming out of the computers.
Finally, I feel that the kitchen is the warmest room in the house. The oven is the warmest part of the kitchen. I open the oven and see and feel that it is on full blast. Basically, it's in self-cleaning mode. (I'm not sure if my oven has a self-cleaning mode, but all previous encrustations had burnt away by this point.) Did I mention that the oven was off? I turn the knob to various temperatures and back off. Nothing.
I found a book telling me how to fix appliances. What to do if an oven won't turn off is actually one of the things it includes! I am supposed to get into the range and replace the selector switch. I've gotten into the range before--on my stove, you pull off all the knobs in front, pull out all the metal rods holding the knobs in place, then lift the top and prop it up like the hood of a car. But the metal rod attached to the oven knob won't come out.
So I read the book again. It says first unplug the stove. Duh. (Did I mention that my brain is not working?) I unplugged it. Then I tried to turn off the gas. It won't budge. Nevertheless, after a few minutes, the oven did go off. Robin came in, tried forcing the gas valve, found WD-40, and turned the gas off. Whew!
An oven that turns itself on super high for hours is scary. My oven is also 30 - 40 years old. (No, it's not harvest gold or avocado green, but brown. The range hood is harvest gold with little orange flower shelf-paper cut-outs stuck all around, though, so that counts.) And I can't get the burners properly unclogged. So, I've decided not to mess with trying to fix it. This is the excuse I've been looking for to replace the oven with an even older oven, namely, a Chambers stove. Check out the Chambers Stove Lovers Website for pictures.
Our latest redecorating plan is this: All white appliances (cheaper and easier to find than cool colors like red or black). Red cabinets (they're painted anyway, so there's no hope of glowing wood tones anyway). (Sally--we want the same fabulous red that y'all painted the little bathroom bureau.) Black counter tops. Black-and-white checkerboard floor. It will be marvellous.
Of course adrenaline build-up is not the quickest route to stress relief. We went out to eat. I read through junk mail so I could get it into the recycle bin. I went to bed at 10. Fortunately, Robin's schedule has been changed again already. Now he gets to work Monday through Friday, 7 to 3:30. So at least I got plenty of sleep.
Still I'm finding myself nodding off at work. So I may not make it to cha cha class tonight, let alone quickstep, which I don't even particularly like. (Yes, because I still suck at it.) And I won't be doing anything about this breaking news I just got: "Word on the street is that Skate World at 9:30 tonight is the place to be for Swing Syndicate dancing on roller skates."