Is that the fire alarm?

Doo tee doo tee doo, minding my own business, clattering away in my office, and all of a sudden I hear this loud, clanging alarm going on. I get up, pad out (you know, cause I'm in my footies), and look around to see what the others are doing. I say, "is that the fire alarm?" "No", comes the reply. "That is the sewage alarm".

Ah yes, of course it is. The sewage alarm. Excellent. We're still looking at each other. "Ummmm, okay, what do we do about it??!!" You call the city and ask them to come pump your tank. The person I'm looking at is already calling and sorting that out. Apparently there is is a dedicated hotline for these water/sewage issues. Anyone who has lived more than 6 months here knows this number by heart. Again, excellent. I am so looking forward to the day when I wake up, use the bathroom, and discover that that thing don't flush. You see, our houses don't have alarms. Nope, you just discover your sewage tank is full (or water tank empty) when the plumbing stops working, which everyone adores.

I leave the man to make the call and head back into my office contemplating how long I'll have to hold the bladder that was already voicing its desire to be evacuated. Hmmm. About an hour later, I pad back out, go to the call-man and ask, "Ummmm, how do we know when we can go back to the bathroom??" You see, there's no calming chime or some such noise that indicates "all clear!" That would be handy. The guy looks at me and says, "Oh you're good to go." "How do you know this??", I ask with my ears perked. He tells me that he heard the truck outside. Oh, okay. You just heard the truck. Sure. That seems reasonable. I asked if he was just punking the new person but he assured me that he really did just hear the truck and so he knew it was done. Seems a bit of a dangerous game to play with sewage if you ask me.

I have been noticing that the cold is starting to seemingly seep into my protective layers. Walking to work, I'm noticing that my arms are feeling the chill. And, my legs are starting to too. Then, today, catching a ride home from work on the ATV, I got an ice-cream headache from the cold air hitting my face. That is bizarre. You get the ice-pick in the forehead sensation with none of the delicious ice cream/slushy reward. What a crock!! I think I'm going to break out the big parka soon. Right now, I am using North Face's "Arctic" parka for women with 550 gram down fill. It's lovely and I really like it. However, the fur is not furry enough---it doesn't hug my face like it needs to and there's no way to tighten it. And, I need the 800-900 gram down fill. In the serious Arctic parkas, the hoods have a wire lining the edge that you can bend to mold to your face shape which allows the furred hood to really block the wind. Secondly, this jackets hood is detachable which sounds like a good thing until you realize that 'detachable' is another word for 'wind holes'. Because it's not sewn on all the way round, wind sneaks in from the sides and gets on my cheeks and face. I've taken to wearing a neck gaiter every day which is nice, but it's getting colder.

I do like that dress code is non-existent. I've always liked jobs like that. I hate having to look presentable. It's too much dang work! I didn't even bring any jewelry up here. At all. Makeup? I haven't worn any foundation or mascara or whatever for months. Hair? Ha! Hair! You wear a knit cap to and from work and with short hair....mine just looks like every other man's hair here---all wild and smushed and swirled. So that's how we sit around, in socks with hat hair.Read more