Broken things
Water restrictions and interrupted internet all before 7am
The Swedish Death Cleaning Sale is going well. I’ve got an update at the end of this email, as well as a request for your input.
We have been under Stage 4 (most critical level) mandatory water restrictions in the city of Calgary since early this past Thursday morning. The emergency alert pinged to our phones just before 7am, telling all Calgarians to preserve water due to a major water main break. We were told not to shower or bathe, not to water lawns and gardens, not to run any appliances requiring water. Conservation was the order of the day.
I texted Jeff, advising him to go the grocery store near his office and get a couple of 5-gallon (18.9L) water cooler jugs of water. By the time he got there, all the large jugs were gone, and the shelves of bottled water were mostly empty. The water main was just down the hill from where he works, and that whole community had been without water since the night before.
I threw on some clothes, and sprayed dry shampoo on my hair. It was a good thing I paused to do that, since my bottle was empty (and a new one immediately ordered). I went to the drug store nearby, only to discover it was closed. It was 7:45am. The drug store wouldn’t be open for another hour and fifteen minutes.
One of the benefits of being an early riser is that by 7:45, I’ve already finished my first cup of coffee; my brain was working. I remembered that one grocery store in my neighbourhood opens at 8, but the other one (the more expensive one) opens at 7. I drove over, expecting chaos in the parking lot, and was relieved to be the third car there. I procured two 5Gal jugs of water.
When I got home, I slipped into journalist mode and started asking some questions. No one in my media circles had any explanation for how and why this happened. Water main breaks typically happen in winter when we have wild freeze/thaw swings. Speculation on the internet was wild and amusing. Everyone had an opinion, but this was the clear winner.
Nevertheless, I did some more digging and discovered that water main repairs are happening all over the city. The cause was likely a result of the pressure changes from all the water main repairs around the one that broke.
I neglected to mention that before the water alert, I woke up before 5am Thursday morning to no internet. We had upgraded our modem the day before and everything was working. Until it wasn’t. Why is it that things works until four hours after the technician leaves and the office is closed for the day? I spent two and a half hours in the morning troubleshooting, chatting with Rogers/Shaw (Bill was fabulous!), and rebooting/resetting/restarting/considering day drinking.
It was a stressful morning. My instinct was to raid the pantry for some comfort carbs, and I stood in front of the open door, contemplating my choices. “No, Dana,” I said to myself, “this will not fix the problem.” I closed the door, let the anxiety simmer, and worked to find a fix for the internet. The solution was to reset our router, then delete and reinstall the router’s app. The solution was to reset our router, then delete and reinstall the router’s app.
First world problems, I know, but I’m proud of myself for not using food as a crutch. I’m fine, you’re fine, we’ll all be fine.
As promised, an update on the death cleaning sale:
We have passed the $1K mark, bringing us to 25% of our goal of $4000. It’s shocking how much stuff we have to sell, and it’s fun to meet the people and hear bits of their story. The gentleman who bought my husband’s old bike was getting it for his son who had a growth spurt. The man who bought tour Erte is a huge fan of 80s art deco (and was vibrating with excitement over the smoking hot deal for a limited edition, signed print. Less than 5% of auction value.) A woman took a circa 1800s chest of drawers off our hands, thrilled to have a handcrafted and gorgeous piece for her home. A high school teacher bought Jeff’s old Armani wool coat and Hugo Boss leather jacket because after a trip to Italy it was his dream to own some couture. “I never thought I’d ever be able to afford any of that,'“ he said as he shrugged his shoulders into the leather.
Selling our stuff has been amusing, frustrating (if you’ve sold on Marketplace, you know), and rewarding. It’s nice to see the things we no longer love bring joy to someone else.
Try it. You might like it. Even if you don’t, you could still wind up with some extra cash. You can check out my listings here.
xo Dana
Can you help?
I’ve been thinking about two changes:
The title of this newsletter. I named it The Shrew in You because I thought it would be more saucy than it turned out to be. I’m stuck coming up with a new name. All I’ve got right now is Beyond the Page (which, by the way, was my first podcast title for What Were You Thinking), This Writer Life, or Dana’s Digest. I’d love to hear your thoughts - whether to change or not, and which title you might like. Does it even matter what I call this thing?
I’ve wanted to re-release Murder on my Mind with a new cover. Here it is:
The new cover maybe? The empty space on the bottom of the back cover is for Amazon’s bar code. vs. the current one:
Help me decide…
I prefer your current Murder on my Mind cover!
It figures!! 🤣