1) I was told, sort of at the last minute, that I'm in charge of six display cases at my school. It's because I'm the art specialist. SO squeezed between everything, I've been trying to come up with ideas. I decided to have six hexagons in one of the cases, with the 6 Cs on them. The Alpine School district is all about the 6 Cs. Citizenship, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, communication, and character.
I wanted them bigger than a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper and different colors with the words printed on them. That all created challenges because how would I make the shapes correctly if I wasn't printing them on paper? How would I get the words printed on them? It was a conundrum.
2) Mark's insulin pump is great--except when he can't figure it out. Saturday he was installing a new cartridge and putting insulin in but the pump was indicating there were only 60 units of insulin when Mark thought there were a lot more. It's stressful because if you run out of insulin, you have to change the whole thing sooner and that is not only a hassle, but I'm not sure our insurance will go for it.
3) At the same time all of the above was happening, I was trying to get to the bottom of a weird smell in our kitchen. It didn't exactly smell like something burning, but it smelled enough like something burning that I was concerned.
The smell was strongest by the sink. I looked under the sink, checking out the disposal, it all seemed fine. I felt every outlet to see if they were warm to the touch. They weren't. I had Mark get up and unscrew all the can lights to see if they were the trouble because I'd read that CFL bulbs can melt rarely. One smelled sort of weird but not really.
I went down to the breaker box in the basement and realized that some of the switches were distinctly warmer than others. That sort of freaked me out. (I think my fear was escalated because our neighbors' house with the same builder had a fire in their kitchen earlier this year due to wonky wiring.)
Adam was at a church meeting--the leadership training for stake conference.
I called my dad who was at the hospital with my mom, who is recovering from surgery. My mom was with a physical therapist and my dad had gone to get food--and left his phone behind (probably because of people like me) so I couldn't get ahold of them.
I had to do something!
I got online and found "emergency 24 hour electricians". I left two messages at two different companies that were never returned so I hope you and I never have a true electrical emergency.
Solutions:
Adam came home from his meeting and talked me down from my agitation. People like me, who overreact, need people in their lives like him, who don't. He said, "We will figure all of this out." He said, "We'll figure out the hexagons tonight." He said, "I will read up more in Mark's user manual about the pump. We can take him for more training."
"But when?" I whined. (Because time is one thing we don't have in abundance.)
He said our house wasn't going to burn down and we could safely go to our evening session of stake conference.
My dad called me back. He told me that warm switches in a breaker box are what happens and not to worry.
Adam and I went to our meeting which was excellent.
After, we drove to JoAnn Fabrics and bought 12 inch scrapbook paper. (For hexagons--why am I such a weirdo with a need for hexagons?)
Back in the kitchen, that bizarre burning smell was going strong near the sink. I picked up a boot shaped pot I had a start of a philodendron in. THAT was the smell! I think the plant food was reacting with the material of the pot. Adam suggested I put it in his office and then if his office started smelling weird we would know the culprit.
Mark was feeling morose because the thing he seems to hate the most is feeling like he is out of control of his diabetes. I texted Karla, who is the kind woman who trained us about the pump (she said I could text her anytime) to request more training.
She called me. At 9:00 on a Saturday night. I put her on speaker phone and she talked to Mark and me. She walked us through some things. She's awesome.
Adam figured out a way to make hexagons (which didn't work because it turns out that 12 inch scrapbook paper isn't really 12 inches square).
My dad came home (because he was staying with us while my mom was in the hospital). I had him smell the plant. He validated me that it did indeed smell like something burning and I threw the entire thing away.
My dad sat down with a ruler and a little compass. He drew a small circle in the center of a page and then drew lines and ended up with a hexagon because he is basically a wizard.
Adam printed the words on vellum so you could still see the paper. He had the idea to attach them with tiny tacks and I remembered I had tiny brad clasps which delight me. The vellum was a perfect solution and Adam is basically a wizard.
Moral of the story:
Sometimes the solution is easy (throw the plant away), sometimes you just need to ask for help (text Karla) and sometimes you just need wizards (my dad and Adam).
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