Light Therapy - The Ongoing Saga

Well, I slept like a log last night and woke naturally at 7:59 am this morning, one minute before my alarm was set for, so that worked about as well as I could have liked. I had my first coffee sitting outside in the 'sun' although the weather wasn't really conducive to it. It wasn't actually raining, but it was cold and damp and the sun only occasionally peeked out from behind the clouds. Still it was a lot brighter out there than in my office here.

Actually, at this time of day sunlight is supposed to be streaming into my office through the curtains, which I have pulled all the way back. Instead, the sun has hidden itself behind heavy clouds and is only visible as a slightly brighter patch of grey in the sky.

I have no idea if it had an impact or not, but I tried out those breathe-right strips last night. They sent us a sampler pack so I thought I'd try them. Its often been mentioned that I have a small nose for my body size, so anything that helps me get air in the night sounds like a good thing. They aren't as easy to position as one might hope, but they also aren't as uncomfortable as I had imagined. It seemed to help a bit with breathing and didn't disturb my sleep at all. I'll have try try the other strip tonight (sample pack only held two -- kinda cheap for a trial).

Leaking Toilet

While I was sleeping, Linda checked out the toilet upstairs and discovered that it was the source of our leak. Water was dripping off the intake valve hose. Now that I'm not dead tired, I've had a look too and I can see its leaking from the same intake valve that I had a plumber come and fix last year. I am very not happy about that. We are currently looking for the receipt for the work as there's no way it should be leaking again after only 7 months.

Not The Plan

So, since I awoke this morning fully refreshed, and at a reasonable hour, I figured I would manage to get a lot done today. This appears to be the case, although not how I planned.

Just after I got out of the shower, I learned that my brother was coming over to do the last 30 minutes of work on the bathroom, after which he'd help me mount the stacking kit on the washer / dryer and stack them. This will free up some much-needed space in the basement.

Now the only problem with this plan was that I didn't know where the stacking kit was. For ages it sat on top of the dryer as I tried to figure out how to stack the machines myself. Obviously it never happened. I vaguely remembered putting the stacking kit on one of the basement shelves but a cursory look there revealed nothing.

Now, the shelves were pure chaos. Things stuffed everywhere, with no rhyme or reason. It only got worse after our basement flood, which brought up another good question: had the thing been packed away into a box so we could fix the basement?

Anyway, I headed downstairs to search for the kit, and had pulled most of the stuff off of one shelf when the phone rang. My brother's car had died shortly after he'd gotten off the highway. Linda is with him now, helping him sort things out and get his car to the garage.

Meanwhile I got back to work and by the time I'd spent two hours pulling everything off the shelves, sorting it, and putting it back, I was able to conclude that the stacking kit just wasn't there. I was contemplating some of the many sealed boxes in the basement with dismay at the thought of hunting through them, when I thought to clear off the washer and dryer. After all, they'd need to be cleared to use the kit.

Sure enough, under a pile of clothes, there was the kit. I guess I never had gotten around to putting it on the shelves. Anyway, if my brother gets his car problems sorted out while there's still time, we'll be stacking the washer and dryer today. If not, at least I know where the stacking kit is for next time.

Tired

Man, I am beat. My brother did eventually come over, do a few minutes work in the downstairs power room and then declared that particular project complete (yay!). Then since he had at least an hour before he had to be driven to the bus (the car will be in the shop until Friday, most likely), he came downstairs and helped me stack the washer and dryer.

As is usual in such things the stuff I assumed would be difficult was easy, and vice versa. The dryer was surprisingly light when two people were lifting it, which was a good thing because the instructions that came with the machines made no mention at all of how to stack them, and we ended up lifting and lowering the dryer a good half dozen times while we tried to work out what went where, which of the various pieces we had were actually needed for the kind of installation we were doing, and the like.

In the end we got it done though, and we now have a stacked washer/dryer combination and the basement looks bigger already. But man, am I tired after all that.