24(ish) lousy hours in an otherwise charmed life
I come home on a Thursday night to howls that the TV is not working. I have 3 kids under the age of 5, so it’s not weird for someone to hit a random button and mess everything up. But, turns out there’s an actual problem with the signal.
The dreaded call to Directv customer service, as expected, was no help. 45 long minutes later, we had a technician visit scheduled for the next day (at my expense, of course). And so set off a chain of events that made the next 24 hours, for lack of a better word, suck.
That night, instead of watching baseball, our two boys were forced to talk to us and play with their ludicrously excessive toy collection. This was apparently too much to bear, and they let us know about it…constantly.
Since Directv provided a super-convenient arrival window of 12–4pm, I decided to work from home on Friday. The upside — 2 hours of commuting time saved. So maybe this won’t be so bad. Even better, I get a call around 9am asking if they can come early, like in 30 minutes. Sweet! Maybe I can make it to the office after all.
The technician spends 30+ minutes checking the box and satellite, but no luck. Then we notice that the wire has been gnawed nearly in half where it enters the house. The internet wire is similarly damaged, which might explain the patchiness of that service (or may just be Comcast, totally plausible). The tech not only fixes the Directv, but offers to fix the internet wire too. Super sweet!
While he’s doing this, I grab the compost bin from the curb. After putting it alongside the house, I feel a sharp pain in my foot. Shit, I stepped on an old rusty nail — right through my flip-flop and about 3/4" into my foot. Hurts like hell.
I hobble into the house to wash it, and then find the technician who confirms that the Directv is working (hooray!) But now the internet is screwed up. It’ll work for a split second, then die for several minutes. He rechecks the connection he fixed, suggests it’s probably the router (the same router that worked 30 minutes ago) and heads on his merry way.
No Directv is inconvenient, but no internet is a non-starter. My wife Jess and I both login to work on the weekends, and of course Comcast can’t send someone out until Monday. But no time to worry about that now, I’m off to Urgent Care to get a tetanus shot!
There’s only 3 people in front of me at Urgent Care. So this should be pretty quick. Right? Maybe not. Apparently there’s only one doctor (and no nurses, which seems weird). Normally I’d go for a walk to relax, but you need to stay put in case your name is called. And also, you know, my foot has a hole in the bottom of it. An hour goes by, and then 2 hours before I’m finally called in.
After only 30 additional minutes of waiting in the room, the doctor enters. He orders a tetanus shot (as expected), and also suggests some strong antibiotics and possibly an x-ray. “That nail went pretty deep. It could have hit a tendon or muscle, or even split a bone”. What?! Seriously?! “Try to stay off of it for a few days, and don’t run for at least a week.”
This is a problem on multiple levels. First, running has become my outlet. It’s how I declutter my mind, reduce stress, and generally stay sane (did I mention 3 kids under 5). Not running makes it hard for me to function — great timing with a board meeting set for the next week.
Second, I’m supposed to be training for a half ironman in a few weeks. I’m way behind, and had planned on riding the actual course tomorrow. “Don’t do that” he advises. Thanks.
Also, I’ve never run more than 9 miles, and this race ends with a 13 mile run (after 4 hours of swimming and biking). So I guess I’ll sorta be winging the whole “running a half marathon” part of the race. And maybe the 56 mile bike too. Thank god I can swim! (Not really — remember this?)
The doctor leaves and I wait 10–15 minutes for someone else to come give me my tetanus shot. OK, finally done. Actually…I have to hang out for 20 more minutes to ensure there’s no reaction to the shot. Ugh. By the time I clear this final hurdle, I’ve passed the 3 hour mark for my visit. It’s now about 1:30pm.
I head to the pharmacy to pick up my medicines, which I’ve been assured will be ready. As I’m parking, I get a robo call letting me know that my Rx has been delayed. No explanation. I head into the pharmacy, wait in line, and find out they had the wrong insurance info. “It’ll be ready in about 20 minutes if you want to wait”. Too much waiting already. I’ve been putting off a trip to the post office for weeks, so might as well get that done now.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened at the post office, just your standard 20 minutes of brutality and inefficiency. Remember the last time you went to the post office? This was just like that.
Back at the pharmacy, I wait in line again, and then they hand me some super-strong antibiotics.
“Isn’t there supposed to be another prescription” I ask.
“Nope.”
“Are you sure, I was told there’d be a topical antibiotic too.”
“Nope. Just those pills.”
“OK…can you call them. They definitely said two medicines.”
“Ah, wait…you’re right. There is a second one. If you can wait 15–20 minutes, we’ll have it ready for you.”
No. More. Waiting. It’s now about 2:30pm, and all I’ve managed to do today is bring in the trash, step on a nail, break the internet, and go to the post office. So not the best day. I head home to try and regain some sanity.
Maybe I should go for a run? Nope, hole in foot.
Maybe I should get some work done? Nope, internet is broken
Bike ride? Nope, still a hole in foot.
Open-water swim to train for my race? Maybe not the best idea to tempt infection with a hole in my foot
So instead, I just sort of sat around feeling sorry for myself and trying to keep my foot elevated. I did a few productive things like securing the hole where the wires enter the crawlspace (stay away hungry rodent!). But basically, a throw-away day. Nothing useful got done, and my energy was focused on the bad things (How will I ever get ready for my race? I’m so far behind on work!) rather than good things (Thank god I stepped on that nail instead of my kids.)
Later in the evening, the antibiotics start to kick in and my stomach starts to tighten. This is a sign of much, much worse things to come over the next few days. Apparently my system does not agree with antibiotics — I think I might have a window into what menstrual cramps feel like. I’m so sorry for so many jokes I’ve made…
Even better — remember that rodent I locked out of our crawl space by patching up the hole? Turns out I locked it IN, not OUT. And this mangy varmint decided that the best way out of the crawl space was into our living room via the route where the cable wire runs. He pops out while Jess is watching TV, she screams, and I spend the next 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get him out. Miraculously, no one (including the mouse) was injured in this experiment.
Saturday morning, my foot is sore so Jess takes the boys to swimming while I stay home. As I sit there feeling sorry for myself, my phone buzzes. It’s a text from Jess:
Just another reminder that I have nothing to complain about. Great kids, great wife, great life. Just one lousy day mixed in to keep me grounded. And the really ‘lousy day’ may be the half-ironman that I’m woefully unprepared for. Stay tuned for that…
