exhaustion

I was volunteering at the museum again today, and although we’re closed in January, we’re going to be open in February. So that means today was a mad rush to try to get Christmas put away and the new exhibits up. It’s a house museum, three stories and a basement office. I’m badly out of shape. Up and down those stairs over and over and over again….

…I know it was good for me, health-wise, especially since I only had a meal bar for lunch, but man, am I exhausted!

I’ve gotta get in better shape. It’s just embarrassing.

On the other hand, at least we went to the outside storage unit today (my first time ever!) and I got to see a doll that’s in storage there that I’ve been wanting to see ever since I saw her listed in the computer catalog. (Like many other items in the collection, the catalog entry isn’t complete, and there’s no photo in the computer.)

It seems like every street around here has some kind of construction going on, especially utilities work.

I know they’re just trying to make sure everything is finished up before winter gets here, but it’s starting to get annoying.

The worst part, of course, is the new water pipes they’re putting in on my street. (At least, I think that’s what they’re doing. I know it’s the water company, but…)

Yesterday, they had to shut off my water from about 8 am to about 10 am. I say “about” because I made sure to leave the house as soon as I got up (about 7:30, despite having been unable to get to sleep the previous night) and to stay at my parents’ house until almost noon. To be extra sure the water would be back on. (Because I know me. As soon as I’m in a situation where I can’t go to the bathroom, that’s when I need to, no matter how little I’ve had to drink.) The water was back when I returned, but for some reason the cold water going to my bathtub has gone from “meager” to “virtually none”. And the water coming from my hot water heater is stuck permanently at “scalding”. So in the hopes of being able to take a bath sometime tonight, I ran about half–or maybe only a quarter–of what I absolutely need in that “scalding” water, and now I’m letting the cold water trickle into it in the hopes that if I wait half an hour or so, between cold water and time, the water in the tub will be a decent temperature. (I did try turning down the setting on the hot water heater, but I may have done so too late in the day for it to have any effect on the water currently in the pipes.)

On top of the water shut-off yesterday, then there was this morning. I had again had trouble getting to sleep, not being able to drop off until about 3:30 am or so. So promptly at 7:15 am, the construction crew started jackhammering the street for twenty minutes. My windows were rattling, even. (Though that may have more to do with them being old windows than anything else.) So for two nights in a row, I’ve gotten maximum four hours of sleep.

Consequently, I’ve been a yo-yo today, dribbling up and down between nearly unconscious with exhaustion and giggling like a madwoman for no readily apparent reason. Seriously. It’s kind of scary.

And I still haven’t finished my work for tomorrow. Though I should be able to finish after my bath.

Assuming the bath water ever finishes running.

I’d just go to the Y and take a shower, but there’s a rumbling in the distance, and the radar shows a nasty storm front headed straight here, and I don’t want to be caught out in it. (It’s weird, though; when I checked this morning, the chance of rain today was listed as 0%. Now it’s at 80%. Yet the temperature isn’t supposed to drop until Friday.)