So last night while trying to fall asleep I was going over the crappy day that I'd had. Woke up at 430am to the sound of the coffee pot coming on. Scott started getting ready for work which, in itself, doesn't normally keep me awake but yesterday it did. 5am he was out the door and I was snuggled back in bed hoping to get another 2 hours of sleep... No such luck. I laid in bed for a few minutes and was soon joined by the cat who, quite out of the ordinary, started hopping around the bed like a bunny.
Now you should know I am very nearsighted and can't see a thing without glasses or contacts. (the old joke around the house is that I can't find my glasses if I don't have my glasses on to see them!) Anyway it wasn't until this brown blob appeared VERY close to my face that I realized Nikki the cat had brought a mouse to my bed and his uncharacteristic jumping was him pouncing on the mouse! FREAK OUT. Right in the bed! My safe haven-the place I RUN to in the bedroom if I see a mouse! I was fairly certain that my magic covers(you know-the ones that protect you from monsters, bats, burglars and all things evil when you cover up with them and hide) were not going to protect me from this vile invader! I'm telling you-my eyes must have bugged out of my head SO far that suddenly I could see very clearly! Clearly enough to put on my glasses and hop out of bed to leave Nikki and the Mouse to wage war without me.
The mouse ran down(the clock struck 530am) onto the floor and I knew I wasn't getting back to sleep. Blah. So I hopped back into bed, safe under the once again magical protecting covers, and watched the (quite literal) game of cat and mouse.
The thing is-Nikki the cat doesn't kill mice. (Or squirrels... If you've read my previous blog entries you may know that we originally got Nikki because we had a squirrel living in our house and we wanted nikki to scare him off. Nikki wasn't bothered at all by the squirrel and then for quite some time we were stuck with both the squirrel and a lazy cat.) So I can't say I was all that surprised when the mouse got away. In my room! Thank goodness mice can't climb and I had my magic 'protect-you-from-all-evils' covers to hide under.
So I tried to text Scott to complain once again about HIS cat's evil antics. But my Smart Phone(which I am sure is plotting my demise, by the way) stopped working properly. I like to 'talk' my texts and then the phone converts what I say into letters and sends it as a text message. Pretty cool! But it wasn't working and I was NOT happy! On top of that people had mentioned the day before that they were having trouble hearing me. I have to say, I expected better from a $400.00+ smart phone(and no, I didn't pay that, we got a deal). So I called XYZ and explained what was going on.
Do you know how frustrating it is when you call because the phone isn't working and the lady on the other end keeps saying 'I'm sorry, What is the problem you're having? I can't hear you.' FACE PALM! Anyway, 50 minutes later my phone has been reset to factory settings(no cool apps or photos loaded or contacts or anything! grr) but it finally seems to be working. I thank the folks at XYZ, put the cover back on the phone(lots of 'remove battery, insert battery' stuff going on) and go about my day.
By now it's 8something in the am and I remember I've been up since stupid o'clock and I STILL haven't text Scott to tell him about the cat and mouse games! So, thankfully and optimistically I click the little microphone to 'talk to text' him. WRONG! Same stupid message comes up. 'no match found'. It doesn't understand me. Grr. So I call XYZ again. The lady insists that the tech support can't hellp me if I don't have a second line for him to call me on. I had already used 50 minutes on my son's straight talk phone(which I think only costs a reasonable $1 a minute or something crazy like that) so I wasn't going to use that any more. She kept insisting and I kept saying 'Can I just SPEAK to him and get some advice to follow after I talk to him. Finally she put me through, I explained the situation. I do believe that old saying 'more bee's with honey than vinegar' (or I prefer to kill em with kindness, but that's a different subject really) so I was calm and explained what was going on.
So he says... Ok let's start by checking out the microphone. It's a little tiny pin hole in the bottom of your phone, just make sure that's cleared out.
OMG! So I look at the bottom of the phone and there is a big glob of clay filling this little tiny pin sized hole in the bottom of my phone! That's all it was! Which explains why the first guy 'fixed' it and then it didn't work-I had put the clay'ed up cover back on after talking to him! OMG! all that crap for a bit of dirt! Why didn't they just say that the first time! I had no idea where the microphone was on the phone(I swear, they are amazing things-for all I know it didn't 'hear' me at all but read my mind instead!) Grr.
Later after I cooled down I thought about the other troubles I had been having with my phone-just websites loading slower and some texts not being received or sent. Then thought about all the viruses and hackers out there and decided it was probably best to reset the phone back to the beginning anyway. Now that I know what to do(and what not to do) as far as the internet goes I can protect myself from things I may have previously downloaded onto my phone that could have been harmful. So maybe it worked out best anyway.
Ok. Fastforward to evening. I have been working on a 40 piece stoneware pottery dinner set for a fantastic customer in Hawaii. It's taken ages now, it's a slow process, and I've lost a few pieces along the way so had to start them over. Yesterday it was FINALLY time to put the first 'glaze' firing in. This is the absolute LAST step in the whole process and I was so nervous. Loaded the kiln, got 12 pieces in without anything touching, closed the lid gently, flipped the switch and got the dreaded error message on the computer! O M G. Not only was I not going to get to fire the pieces, the kiln was broken! They are fairly easy to replace....assuming you have $3000 laying around. I have about 74 cents right now though... Not cool!
Turns out the thermal coupling had broken(the thing that tells how hot the kiln is so when it gets to about 2032 degrees F it knows to shut off before it melts my house down). The kiln itself is pretty old(I bought it used) so we don't even know yet if we can get the piece. I'm hopeful though. Anyway way, in my typical 'maybe it's ment to be' state of mind I sat down with Scott and we talked about it. We were looking on line for replacement parts and discovered that the Thermal Coupling often needs to be replaced as it gets corroded. If you don't replace it, the kiln can fire too hot! So, depending on how bad it was, the whole kiln load worth of dishes could have been ruined AND if it got hot enough it could have actually been dangerous! So...I said to Scott.. It probably worked out best that it happened now before any damage was done. He laughed and said 'ah yeah-your whole ''ment to be'' theory. You see I really think that, more often than not, things work out for the best. Even when it seems absolutely sucky! Like my phone-for all I know someone was able to phish(steal details) off of my phone and by resetting it to factory settings I got rid of whatever virus or program may have given my details away. And the kiln-we may have just avoided a house fire!
So...there I am, in bed, thinking about all of this. I'm pretty calm all things considered. A few years ago all the stress from the day would have had me in the bathroom throwing up. Now I look back and think about how we just never know why things work out the way they do. It seems I've turned into one of those sickly optimistic people who you just want to say 'Oh shut up!' to. Don't you just hate that chipper person who always finds the silver lining on the crappiest cloud! It wasn't that long ago that I'd smack that person in the face and now I AM that person. Ugh. How it happened I'll never know, but I have to say I'm much happier now and always try to look at the bigger picture. Maybe not at first-heck I can still stress to the point of breaking over the stupidest things like did I pay that library fine from 1989, but, all in all, I do think things generally work out the way they're meant to, whether we realize it or not.
You don't know what the universe has planned or what it's protecting you from. Still, I am going to hang on to those magic covers for a while longer in case the universe things Nikki should bring another mouse in the bedroom....
Now...Where did I put my Prozac? =D
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