Short post - few links.

[silveradept]

No, really, short post. Heavy on the content, light on th links. In fact, you know what, I'll just get them out of the way, okay? I've got one, and only because it's time-sensitive. On 24 June (today), someone is holding a Fairy Day celebration, with all sorts of little winged ones (no, not the demon children) fluttering about and either being nice, arguing about coloration, or causing hell. Depends on the fae you talk to, honestly.) I think they're all going to be the cute girl-fairies that wouldn't stand higher than one of the mutant mosquitoes here in Michigan. So all the Tinkerbell fans, or the fae, or all the fairy men (hey, they didn't specify), enjoy your day in the sun. Or something like that. (Why not on solstice day, though - would make more sense...)

So, anyway, today was.. eventful, I believe will be an inappropriate adjective to describe it. (Understatement, most likely.) There was a JAMS meeting, which is always fun to do, with Transformers-themed snackfoods and grilling and anime... and having two f the cans of soda I had spill. It might have been a premonition for what happened later - in the middle of the Highlander animated movie, my telephone rings, and it's one of my housemates informing me that the toilet on my floor has overflowed itself and is heading toward my room. Now, being the utterly zen and serene person that I am, I asked my housemate to help deal with the problem by moving some of the objects and turning off some of the electrical objects in my room, thinking that there was an onrush of water flowing out and that something like, say, my UPS, was already in danger of an encroaching water puddle. The response I got was more of "How soon can you come back to the house and fix this, because I'm not dealing with it. Oh, and someone will be doing my dishes." So, threat level Elmo, panic mode on, and JAMS got to see my bad side. (Sorry. I'm not normally like this, honestly. It just happened to trip all of my pet peeves in a single sentence or two. Oh, and JAMS learned that, yes, I am proficient in the use of expletives.) So, wried silly about what could very well be an expensive and damaging flood raging into my house, I leave the meeting and drive back. Along the way, annaonthemoon re-called said housemate with instructions on how to turn of the water flow (y'know, to minimize damage and stop things from continuing), to be hung up on before she could give any direction, and being told "I'm not dealing with this" from said housemate. That doesn't make me happy. So not only are we at threat level Elmo, I'm starting to see a nice shade of chartreuse creeping into my vision...

...well, along the way, we're trying to raise a cavalry to precede us to th house and start doing damage control - but everyone else was out or at work or otherwise unable to assist. annaonthemoon ended up signaling the 911 service, was put in contact with the Ann arbor police department, who then called said housemate with instructions on how to stop the water flow. Y'know, we were still worried about, say, electricity discharging into the water and sparking a fire, destroyed computers, wrecked peripherals, that sort of thing, because people were not trying to stop things. Upon arrival at the house, we find that the water has been turned off by a different housemate and that what we thought was a torrent was a dribble - it hadn't even made it to my room yet, but it was going to get there eventually, and the whole thing was likely started because someone new to the house didn't know about the trick to jiggle the handle to stop the tank from filling. So once we saw the scene and got an accurate report about what actually had happened, rather than the worst-case scenario we were preparing for, the cause was pinpointed pretty easily, and it turns out to have been slightly more a false alarm than a five-alarm. Which is good, in that nothing was hurt, and very bad for my blood pressure and life expectancy. Had we but known in the first place that the matter wasn't necessarily that serious, and that simply turning off the water/jiggling the handle would fix the problem (well, after mopping up all the water that had already escaped, or letting it dry out, then panic could have been avoided, and if on the way there, we had been told that crisis was averted and nothing was in danger, that would have also been nice to know so that we didn't have to drive all the way back to the house to confirm it all for ourselves. The moral of the story here is: Get and give good, accurate, and detailed information on issues like these, so that unnecessary panic is avoided. And that, eventually, I should put my sensitive electronics above the flood line. But when I have space for that, I'll go about doing that.

By the time the situation was resolved and we were heading back, the meeting had finished, so we went ahead with the original plan to spend a night at the 'rents, so that we could do some swimming tomorrow. Tomorrow had better be a better day. We've had more than enough water scares and potential accidents, so tomorrow might be the day that a boat throws up to much wake and tries to drown us or something. The stars must be aligned against me for whatever reason. Although they haven't actually turned out anything major or totally screwed up yet. (And there had better not be some sort of jinx because I said that, or I'm personally flipping Eris off over the whole thing.) So, that was my adventure today. What was yours?

Comments

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

...

I recommend killing said housemate. Painfully.

[lilacstarprint.livejournal.com]

I agree. Said 'housemate' is a real 'housemutt' and should be put out like the dog he is. If he can't be bothered to do anything simple like oh take care of a little mess, then maybe he should go live in a motel where he won't have to do anything but pay for the room.

[silveradept]

Well, excepting for gender, you're doing okay. I lived in a house with five girls (this is no longer true, as one of the girls' brothers has moved in upstairs.) for the past year or so. Although I think that said brother might have been the root cause of the problem, as he didn't know the tricks of the trade when it came to ensuring that the toilet didn't overflow naturally. He's blameless for all this stuff, really.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

The icon says it all.

[eleme.livejournal.com]

=X

[uncle-pervy.livejournal.com]

My Gods...I can't believe it got to the point of calling A^2 PD over something like that. The club was needless to say amazed at how pissed you got. I've only seen you pissed a couple of times max, and I think that was a new level of anger I saw from you. Throw in your split-second bi-polar change from absolute anger to Vulcan-esque calm rationality followed by a last second Goddamnit, and I think it's safe to say that was the highlight of the meeting. That blew away watching "Heroic Age" & "Highlander" by far.

At least your stuff wasn't harmed and all was well in the end.

[silveradept]

No damage done, yes, but I was staring down the potential destruction of many things that I held dear to me, while one of my housemates stood by and let it happen, yaknow? Sorry that the club got to see my bad side. You make it sound like they marveled at the fact that I do get mad, and that I can get really mad at times.

The anime should have been the highlight, though. Although, I won't be able to see how the Highlander animation ends for a while, if ever.

[uncle-pervy.livejournal.com]

They were marveled. You're always cheerful, rational, sometimes a bit of melancoly rolls in but you've been pretty good at holding back your anger. Like I said, most of them never saw you get that pissed before. That wasn't the big thing however - it wasn't just you getting pissed and throwing out expletives left & right like me on a drunken bender but the second you got off the phone. You regained all your composure & gave a calm quip that was a polar opposite of you less than a second previously. That was the big shock.

[silveradept]

Oh, that. Well, I certainly wasn't going to yell at you guys - you didn't do anything wrong or make me panic. No need for you to get all that rage. This is, apparently, odd, I guess.

[uncle-pervy.livejournal.com]

It's not odd that you consciously didn't want to vent your frustrations on us, the oddity was the ease by which you switched from reaching meltdown to placid calm...followed by the last expletive as you went out the door. Short of being considered bi-polar or just schizoid (which you and I both acknowledge we pretty much are in one form or another) it was the best show of emotion & restraint ever seen by them.

[silveradept]

Oh, that. That's just knowing who you actually are supposed to be mad at and who you're not. Plus, you're supposed to be polite when taking your leave of someone, especially those who have been polite to you and served you food and drinks. It's a practiced art, being able to be thoroughly aggravated at one person and not let it spill over into anything else.

The whole incident probably made everyone worry that if I ever decided to kill someone, I'd do it cheerfully and without outward signs of malice, either before or after I had a screaming fit over the whole matter.

[uncle-pervy.livejournal.com]

That should be a good thing...it'll force them to take a second and think, "Should I REALLY do something that'll piss him off?" I say milk it for as much as you can.

As for what you're supposed to do in true gentlemenly fashion at a friend's soiree, you have to remember: This is America - we're not exactly what you would call "enlightened" or "The Land of Gentlemen & Sportmanlike Conduct." You only have to read (or in your case experience first-hand) the reactions of parents who go off on coaches in Little League & Youth Sports.

I know you can do that and I've tried my best to do that as well...in the hopes of getting people to do as I previously stated in the first paragraph.

[silveradept]

Bah! I don't want people to be afraid of me, excepting at those few points in my life where I do. I suppose something like this helps to instill the seed of that necessary fear when it comes, but I don't particularly like losing my temper in front of people.

Just because it's America doesn't mean that you can't exercise some rules of conduct and gentlemanly behavior. With he way things are now, it's probably even more essential that good behavior happen wherever possible. Which I'm sure you completely agree with and all that. But it shouldn't be to instill fear, but wonder at how someone can be so unflinchingly polite.