Friday, February 15, 2008

first wave's done, ready for the second

Okay, the lice are dealt with, although I should know better than to say so. Combing and recombing the Eldest's hair, we found it reliable that should I say, 'right. I think we're done,' on that stroke of the comb something eggish or wriggly should turn up.

But I do think we are done. Nothing eggish, wrigglish or nittish has turned up on lo these many days. Which allows me to turn my attention to:

* the nasty cold with hacking cough bonus that I picked up on Day Two of the Lice Saga. Grimly, it has held on, awaiting it's moment in the spotlight. It will, however, have to compete with

* the broken oven door. Ma'am, that'll be [x hundreds of dollars]. I'll be back with the part on the 22nd. Until then, don't use the oven - it's for your own safety. My horrified face spoke for itself, I like to think, and may have had somewhat to do with why he disappeared so quickly thereafter.

* the broken faucet. Not content with leaking quietly, the faucet cleverly disconnected itself from the pipe under the sink, spraying water everywhere. One plumber's visit later, the pipe was grumpy but reconnected, and the kind plumber cleaned the inside of the head for us, to help improve flow. The faucet retaliated by leaking furiously and at an increasing rate. The part, I am assured, will arrive early next week. One can only hope that my incoherent roaring managed to drown out the snickering faucet.

* the conjunctivitis. Yep, the Eldest had crusty yellowish-greenish stuff on his eyelashes, which I kindly cleaned off for him last night. He didn't appreciate it, but the bacteria in the gunk did, and promptly took advantage. Now we are both oozy and itchy-eyed, I've roared at him (and felt guilty, of course) and the Man is on his way home, erev Shabbat [sabbath eve], with much antibiotic eye creams. Mindful of the holiday weekend, and considering the eye-rubbing of the Eldest, I asked the pediatrician to prescribe some ointment for the Toddles...just in case. Meanwhile, I set grimly about the business of conjuring up dinner for an oven-less family, who scant hours before Shabbat realized that they weren't going out for dinner.

Which makes me wonder. When the lice hit, the Man escaped the plague, but shaved his head regardless. Now that pink-eye has come to play, I wonder if he'll take a nail scissors to his eyelashes?

Shabbat shalom, all. May the sabbath bring us peace, quiet amongst the modern conveniences (there's a Flanders and Swann song about such mod cons that's too appropriate just now), and liquid comfort for the oozing and itching of eye.

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Oh, and feeling a little paranoid about the comforts of your life? Sitting in my sanctum, with the blinds closed tightly in front of the broken window, I am. And then I popped in here: http://www.mistercrunchy.com/mainblog.html and read his post on backing up.

My first thought was, oh no! Backing up my computer? And then I remembered the hideous day when I discovered that I'd lost three months of notes and draftwork for a major article, and had a deadline AND Rosh Hashana breathing down my neck...maybe it's time to go set up a backup service. Because, um, I always mean to back up, but, um, you know.

7 comments:

Zina said...

Oh no. Oy vey! How terrible. And you want to host a babywearer's party on Monday? Tempting fate? LOL

I hope there is no 3rd wave.

And by the way, I recently lost all my b-roll of Boston video and all the work I did on the CCWZ promo. One and a half weeks of work I had to create in one and a half days. The hard drive is sitting on the floor of my car - after the data recovery people said it would take thousands of dollars to recover.

Anonymous said...

In a lame offering of a hopeful light at the end of this little tunnel:

Astrologically, the planet Mercury is currently retrograde, scheduled to turn forward very soon. On both the turn "backwards" and then forwards, things Mercury is in charge of get even worse (appliances, computers, contracts, communication). Even my mom, geochemist and skeptic that she is, believes in it. I check on Mercury and put it in my calendar. When retrograde approaches, if nothing else, I remember to remind myself about that pesky file backup thing.

References (: http://www.astrologyzone.com/forecasts/mercury.html for the true believers and http://itotd.com/articles/271/mercury-retrograde/ for the dubious believers.

mother in israel said...

You first posted about the lice on Feb 8. May I gently suggest continuing to comb every other day till two weeks are up. If no lice turn up, you haven't lost anything and you can tell me I was wrong. If you catch some babies before they lay any more eggs, you have saved yourself two more weeks of aggravation.

Anonymous said...

Much with the commiseration, especially the cold. Pesky thing, that, still holding on, despite starting to feel a bit better...

Also a reminder that my oven isn't so far from you, and is available should you need it.

ZM said...

Zina,

absolutely I want to host! I'd love to have a bunch of women wrapping and playing with mei tais - and to have it in an allergy-friendly environment. I can't think of anything more fun, or better designed to give the Man some free time on a loooong weekend.

Besides, Mary Jr is coming on Sunday morning to visit, and she's a happy babywearer, too!

ZM said...

thank you, magid. I haven't forgotten. And I hope your cold improves, too! Currently, my goal is to be nasally functional enough to smell the lilies that the Man brought home for Be Loving Day.

I'd assume your goals are much the same, but do your orchids even have a scent?

ZM said...

m.i.I, actually, I'm just that obbsessed - I'm still combing the Eldest daily (infestion central), myself (stop #1 on the Lice Line) and spot checking the Toddles (not infested, but in the general vicinity). The Man just rubs his stubbly head and smiles tolerantly at me. But still. I'm with you - if I catch even one or two eggs, I'll have saved us so much trouble.

Zina, you poor dear! You have such trials with your personal electronics. I wonder if Mercury is semi-permanently in retrograde for you? And how frustrating - we loved the promo, and the Toddles and I happily watched it over and over.

Maybe joy's got something to consider here. While I'm a satisfied non-believer, what else could explain this wave of mechanical failures?