Murphy's Law and Me

Okay, so I bet everyone is familiar with Murphy's Law: "If anything can go wrong, it will." Although things haven't been quite that bad today, it has been a series of poorly timed events and near misses.

Additionally, there is an interesting website that identifies both the origin of 'Murphy's Law' and some potential corollaries.

It can be found here: http://www.murphys-laws.com/

So my day began with inadvertently sleeping through my alarm. I snapped awake (about 45 minutes after I wanted to get up) and realized "Oh shit, it's trash day!" Now, normally, this is not a problem for two reasons: a) the trash men almost always come in the afternoons and b) I live alone, so my trash can can easily handle a week's worth of garbage.

Yesterday, I called and asked for a special pickup. I have (hmm... scratch that, had) a chaise style chair in my living room. Unfortunately for me, my feline companions have decided that the chair is a secondary litter box. Despite numerous treatments of vinegar, enzyme treatment, and other odor removers, I have been unable to remove the smell completely. Cat urine is one of the most pervasive (and disgusting) smells I've run across.

Running to the opposite end of the house, I nearly upend myself on a jingle ball. Narrowly avoiding the (pun intended) catastrophe, I peek through the blinds and see - amazingly - my neighbors' trash is still outside. Throwing on the minimum amount of "respectable" clothing, I open the garage and start moving the chair.

Unfortunately, I managed to leave a couple of scratches in my driveway. Apparently, I lack the upper body strength to carry this piece of furniture on my own, and thence mostly dragged it to the curb.

Side note. The garbage pick-up said that they may not be able to take the chair, it would depend on the space left in the truck, and how far behind schedule they were. It is overcast today. If they do not take the chair, it will be back in my garage. I am hoping Murphy goes away long enough to avoid rain.

Once I got the trash squared away, I had classwork (and that 'incremental learning' meeting) to finish. Shockingly, some of my students missed a deadline, groups are having drama, and I must mediate.

In the middle of this, I decide to call Technical Support back. I contacted them yesterday, and after being politely told that the "higher than normal call volumes" had resulted in a wait time over 35 minutes, I hung up. Since the issue was not life or death, I was not about to deal with UoP hold messages. My call today merits another of the "holy crap, we've got too many people calling" messages, with a 10 minute hold. Not great, but acceptable.

I put the cell on speakerphone, and continue reading posts and working on issue solutions. Ten minutes go by. Still on hold. I get a glass of soda. Come back to the office. Still on hold.

One of my cats gets up on the desk. This is rarely a big deal, as they come up for attention while I am working, and mostly just sleep on the desk or computer tower. Not today. Zoe (the younger of my two cats), decides to make a break for the printer, and upends the entire cup of soda.

You never realize the great spread that 12 oz of soda will make until it moves from the proper holding container onto a flat surface.

Cherry diet soda flows all over. I pull three textbooks away, dump the cat (who is still standing in the middle of the chaos) on the floor, and run for a towel. Cloth, not paper, this needs big help.

As I burst back into the office and begin soaking up the liquid mayhem, I hear: "Technical Support, this is Thomas, may I help you?"

Phone to one ear, I begin mopping up. Luckily the web page is open to the identifying information I need. I start answering Thomas' questions, and hear a soft trickling sound.

The soda ran under the computer tower, over the cables, and was flowing onto the power surge.

I have already, somewhat sheepishly, told the nice man from Technical Support what is going on. I'm sure he wonders why I am still on the phone and not just dealing with the problem (this is the fourth call to them this week, and 15 minutes is still the best wait time).

I hit the floor, taking poor Thomas with me, and cover the surge with the towel. I also take the split second to flip the switch, cutting the power to the computer system, preferrably before something shorts out.

Have I mentioned yet that I think the poor man was amused by me?

After another few minutes I wrap up the technical issue. Another ten and I've got the soda under control. Hopefully, I've given Murphy enough amusement for one day, but you never know.

And my office still smells like cherry.