Winter Weirdness
So last night the kid wakes up in a crying fit at 5am, for awhile there he just hugged the crap out of me and cried his little eyes out. Bad dream I figure but whatever it was interrupted my sleep so I ended up sleeping in a little bit in the morning. Given the snow and the ice I decide once outside the house I’m not going to rush in an effort to make up for lost time because there was nothing time-sensitive waiting for me at work and rushing in these conditions is how people get hurt.
On the last bus I take to work I was happily watching episodes of NewsRadio on my PDA when some guy starts waving his hand in my face. I stop the video, take out an earbud and ask him what he wants. He shoves an Elvis cassette tape in my face and says I should be listening to that instead.
“No, thank you, I’m fine watching this” I say.
He insists. I smell alcohol on his breath. It’s 9am.
“Is there something about me intently watching my show and smiling that makes you think I’m somehow unhappy with my selection?” I asked. “Was there something about me paying absolutely no attention to the outside world as I watched my show with my headphones on that made you think I was interested in a conversation? That I was secretly hoping you’d interrupt my enjoyable activity?”
“No,” he says, “I just thought…”
I interrupt him, “and look at the size of my little device here – it’s smaller than your tape, what makes you think I have the means to play that tape when it’s bigger than my player?”
He just stares at me.
“I’m going to go back to what I was doing before you interrupted me” I say, not feeling particularly patient, “and don’t you worry, I’m watching this show because I chose it and I enjoy it”.
Then I get to work to find out the water has been shut off to my office including the washing machines I use almost daily and my washroom. I investigate and the plumbers say the water will be off for the winter and they insist they do this every year. The thing is, I’ve been doing this job since 2006 and have never been away for much longer than a week and this has never happened before. I’ve had my water disconnected for servicing or an installation or somesuch but never for more than a couple weeks and certainly nothing approaching an entire season but apparently it’s out of my hands.
Then a guy from our alarm company shows up saying he got a call saying there was a problem in my office. We’ve haven’t had any issues with the alarm in my office in months.
Suffice to say I’m having a very strange day.
