Saturday, April 2
Apr. 3rd, 2022 01:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Beautiful weather.
Kind of a weird day for me. I had a fun event to look forward to at the riding barn, just a get-together, but it is such a rare thing for me these days that I have to make a bit of an effort to get my chores all done, get things organized, get some kind of food to take with me, and clean up my body, that it is kind of a big deal.
Since my own diet is kind of unusual, I rarely have food on hand that works to take to friendly gatherings, and I didn't want to drive over half an hour to town, then back, just to get snacks.
I ended up at the last minute, baking cookies. I haven't baked cookies in a very long time, because I don't eat them any more. I'm lucky I had the ingredients.
They turned out great. I was kind of stressed about it, though, because it has been over two years since I have had to bring something to a get together, and it is something that is always oddly stressful for me.
Anyhow, I was actually doing pretty good. I had the cookies done, all my normal chores done, had some drums already in the car, yoga mats in the car (the invite said to bring yoga mats and drums if you had one, I brought extras), had a quick bath, got on clean clothes (I had to put some thought into what to wear, since this WAS still the barn, but a social gathering, so...just clean casual clothes without the usual stains and holes?).
Just as I was all ready to go, and right on time, the alarm for the sewer goes off. It is piercing.
It is the alarm that come on when the level in our holding tank is too high (we have a system where there are two holding tanks. One contains all of the sewage, and the solids settle and the water spills over into another tank, which gets pumped out to a series of slow-release pipes. If the pump stops, the grey water gets too high, and could flood the basement).
It wasn't going to flood the basement if I just left it, but I needed to stop the alarm so it wouldn't drive the cats crazy while I was gone. Usually, all this requires is just shifting the cords around so that the float moves away from the side of the tank (it often gets hung up, setting off the alarm. Generally there is nothing wrong with anything else).
This time, the pump had stopped because my husband had it plugged into an extension cord that got wet and tripped the breaker. Fine. I reset the outlet, and I could hear the pump working again, and I could see the water level receding, but the alarm would not go off.
So here I am, just had a bath and clean clothes on, and I am wading around in the snow/slush outside, trying to pull up the sewage coated cables to sort out our goddam septic system. Again.
Once again, here we are three years after this was all installed, and I am constantly tugging on these cords trying to sort out the pump and the float, and because the outlet was installed too low and got wet, my husband used an extension cord for the pump, and that got wet too. That's why the pump stopped.
So I just got so angry I was ready to scream. All I wanted to do was go somewhere as a clean person, and have some fun. No. That can't happen without me needing to root around in our septic tank.
My husband says he can rewire the system this summer, and he doesn't get my frustration, because he thinks this is a rare occurrence. I had to remind him that the FIRST winter, the alarm failed, and TWICE the whole basement was flooded with the grey water that I had to clean up by dumping animal bedding all over to soak it up, then shovel it into pails, and haul out of the basement window with a ladder. TWICE.
Since then, the alarm has worked well, but the pump or the float keep having issues, and a few times every winter, not sure how many, three or four times easily this winter (sometimes waking me up in the early morning, sometimes going off at night), maybe more, I have to go lift the very heavy concrete cover back, after digging it out of the snow, and root around with the cables and cords and try to get it all going again.
I am SUPER TIRED of doing this, and today it really hit me hard because I was just trying to go somewhere and have a nice time, and instead I have to deal with this.
It isn't fixed. The alarm would not shut off, and I got angry and just started pulling everything up out of the tank, and finally the float got pulled up and shut the goddam alarm off, but now that means that the pump isn't likely where it needs to be, or anything else. So I guess I have that to look forward to tomorrow.
Part of me says I can't really blame my husband for this system being so stupid, but....? We've been "working out the bugs" in it for three years now. I am tired of bugs.
I did finally get to the get-together, a little late and a change of socks later.
It was a lot of fun. It was in the very nice finished room above the barn. It was just people from the barn, but I didn't know everyone because we all ride/have lessons on different days (Covid meant that R had to give us time slots that didn't over lap too much).
Since the restrictions are lifted (for better or worse) we could socialize. It was crazy just to talk and laugh with people, and I got almost giddy and light-headed again at the simple act of being social. Sweet Jesus, I am one isolated person. I almost pass out from the excitement of just laughing with another human being. I probably come across as a little TOO HAPPY to be there.
I couldn't eat much of what people brought, but I ate a bit before I left so I wouldn't miss it. We chatted, randomly played drums or singing bowls (I thought we were doing a drum circle but it didn't materialize). I brought the new steel tongue drum I got recently, and people were pretty enamored by it.
Then we did a meditation together and that was cool. Most parties don't include a group meditation.
The cookies went over well, and there are some left for my husband.
I learned that France has detonated nearly 200 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific, the last of which was in 1996. These are BIG detonations, with more radiation than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. They had affected all of the surrounding islands, poisoning groundwater, and destroying coral reefs and the delicate biomes that live there. Untold millions of sea creatures. Oh, yes, and people too. Apparently France's response is mainly "my bad".
France also did a lot of testing in the Sahara desert.
Kind of crazy, when you think of how many countries were doing testing in that part of the world. United States, for example, were doing similar tests in that part of the world, on Bikini Atoll. https://theconversation.com/75-years-after-nuclear-testing-in-the-pacific-began-the-fallout-continues-to-wreak-havoc-158208
That must actually be a very radioactive region. Apparently the radiation is potentially going to spread if global warming raises ocean levels, because many of these tests were done in big holes in the ground on these islands, and flooding would spread the radiation into the sea water.
Australia is having issues with the radiation being swept there by wind, and by the sea.
https://theworld.org/stories/2021-08-06/new-study-nuclear-testing-french-polynesia-reveals-france-s-censorship-and
Beautiful weather.
Kind of a weird day for me. I had a fun event to look forward to at the riding barn, just a get-together, but it is such a rare thing for me these days that I have to make a bit of an effort to get my chores all done, get things organized, get some kind of food to take with me, and clean up my body, that it is kind of a big deal.
Since my own diet is kind of unusual, I rarely have food on hand that works to take to friendly gatherings, and I didn't want to drive over half an hour to town, then back, just to get snacks.
I ended up at the last minute, baking cookies. I haven't baked cookies in a very long time, because I don't eat them any more. I'm lucky I had the ingredients.
They turned out great. I was kind of stressed about it, though, because it has been over two years since I have had to bring something to a get together, and it is something that is always oddly stressful for me.
Anyhow, I was actually doing pretty good. I had the cookies done, all my normal chores done, had some drums already in the car, yoga mats in the car (the invite said to bring yoga mats and drums if you had one, I brought extras), had a quick bath, got on clean clothes (I had to put some thought into what to wear, since this WAS still the barn, but a social gathering, so...just clean casual clothes without the usual stains and holes?).
Just as I was all ready to go, and right on time, the alarm for the sewer goes off. It is piercing.
It is the alarm that come on when the level in our holding tank is too high (we have a system where there are two holding tanks. One contains all of the sewage, and the solids settle and the water spills over into another tank, which gets pumped out to a series of slow-release pipes. If the pump stops, the grey water gets too high, and could flood the basement).
It wasn't going to flood the basement if I just left it, but I needed to stop the alarm so it wouldn't drive the cats crazy while I was gone. Usually, all this requires is just shifting the cords around so that the float moves away from the side of the tank (it often gets hung up, setting off the alarm. Generally there is nothing wrong with anything else).
This time, the pump had stopped because my husband had it plugged into an extension cord that got wet and tripped the breaker. Fine. I reset the outlet, and I could hear the pump working again, and I could see the water level receding, but the alarm would not go off.
So here I am, just had a bath and clean clothes on, and I am wading around in the snow/slush outside, trying to pull up the sewage coated cables to sort out our goddam septic system. Again.
Once again, here we are three years after this was all installed, and I am constantly tugging on these cords trying to sort out the pump and the float, and because the outlet was installed too low and got wet, my husband used an extension cord for the pump, and that got wet too. That's why the pump stopped.
So I just got so angry I was ready to scream. All I wanted to do was go somewhere as a clean person, and have some fun. No. That can't happen without me needing to root around in our septic tank.
My husband says he can rewire the system this summer, and he doesn't get my frustration, because he thinks this is a rare occurrence. I had to remind him that the FIRST winter, the alarm failed, and TWICE the whole basement was flooded with the grey water that I had to clean up by dumping animal bedding all over to soak it up, then shovel it into pails, and haul out of the basement window with a ladder. TWICE.
Since then, the alarm has worked well, but the pump or the float keep having issues, and a few times every winter, not sure how many, three or four times easily this winter (sometimes waking me up in the early morning, sometimes going off at night), maybe more, I have to go lift the very heavy concrete cover back, after digging it out of the snow, and root around with the cables and cords and try to get it all going again.
I am SUPER TIRED of doing this, and today it really hit me hard because I was just trying to go somewhere and have a nice time, and instead I have to deal with this.
It isn't fixed. The alarm would not shut off, and I got angry and just started pulling everything up out of the tank, and finally the float got pulled up and shut the goddam alarm off, but now that means that the pump isn't likely where it needs to be, or anything else. So I guess I have that to look forward to tomorrow.
Part of me says I can't really blame my husband for this system being so stupid, but....? We've been "working out the bugs" in it for three years now. I am tired of bugs.
I did finally get to the get-together, a little late and a change of socks later.
It was a lot of fun. It was in the very nice finished room above the barn. It was just people from the barn, but I didn't know everyone because we all ride/have lessons on different days (Covid meant that R had to give us time slots that didn't over lap too much).
Since the restrictions are lifted (for better or worse) we could socialize. It was crazy just to talk and laugh with people, and I got almost giddy and light-headed again at the simple act of being social. Sweet Jesus, I am one isolated person. I almost pass out from the excitement of just laughing with another human being. I probably come across as a little TOO HAPPY to be there.
I couldn't eat much of what people brought, but I ate a bit before I left so I wouldn't miss it. We chatted, randomly played drums or singing bowls (I thought we were doing a drum circle but it didn't materialize). I brought the new steel tongue drum I got recently, and people were pretty enamored by it.
Then we did a meditation together and that was cool. Most parties don't include a group meditation.
The cookies went over well, and there are some left for my husband.
I learned that France has detonated nearly 200 nuclear bombs in the South Pacific, the last of which was in 1996. These are BIG detonations, with more radiation than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. They had affected all of the surrounding islands, poisoning groundwater, and destroying coral reefs and the delicate biomes that live there. Untold millions of sea creatures. Oh, yes, and people too. Apparently France's response is mainly "my bad".
France also did a lot of testing in the Sahara desert.
Kind of crazy, when you think of how many countries were doing testing in that part of the world. United States, for example, were doing similar tests in that part of the world, on Bikini Atoll. https://theconversation.com/75-years-after-nuclear-testing-in-the-pacific-began-the-fallout-continues-to-wreak-havoc-158208
That must actually be a very radioactive region. Apparently the radiation is potentially going to spread if global warming raises ocean levels, because many of these tests were done in big holes in the ground on these islands, and flooding would spread the radiation into the sea water.
Australia is having issues with the radiation being swept there by wind, and by the sea.
https://theworld.org/stories/2021-08-06/new-study-nuclear-testing-french-polynesia-reveals-france-s-censorship-and
no subject
Date: 2022-04-04 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-06 04:39 pm (UTC)I'm glad the party was enjoyable at least!
no subject
Date: 2022-04-06 10:13 pm (UTC)The party was fun. I almost forgot how to be social like this!
no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 06:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 02:34 pm (UTC)