in which there is balance in things

It's been a pretty rotten past couple of days. Things could definitely be worse; I am a disaster minded person, so trust me, I can think of many ways that things could be worse. But there's balance right now. 

Here's a summary of my life since Thursday.

1. My near death experience on the streets of Seattle. 

I'm not joking. I work in an old, six storey building in Pioneer Square. Old brick buildings and ancient glass? Super high on ambience, character, and charm. Not so great with safety factors. I left a little bit after lunch to walk to a meeting held at another office in downtown, and I noticed the window washer had set up his cone of safety on the sidewalk. I walked around the cone of safety, and heard a crash. I looked up, and a giant chunk of glass was falling from the sky right towards my head. I quickly stepped to the right, and the glass crashed on the pavement right about where I had been standing. It was a windy day and the window washer had been caught in a gust of wind and crashed into a window, which shattered. The large chunk of glass obviously hadn't completed its 40 hour occupational health and safety course because it completely ignored the cone of safety and smashed to smithereens well outside it. The window washer was all right; he wasn't cut by the glass. 

So yes, I avoided grave harm by luck. The broken window was on the fourth storey. This is probably what saved me from harm. If it were on the second storey, it probably would have fallen before I'd even processed the crashing sound. If it had been the third storey, it most likely would have struck me right as I looked up. 

Strangely, I wasn't really affected by the whole experience. No shaking nerves of a narrowly averted disaster. I was ok, the window washer was ok, so that's that. He had set up his safety protocols like he was supposed to, and I avoided the work area like I was supposed to. Later, I told my boss about it, and she had the attack of nerves. "Oh my god, do you realize that you could have been killed?" "Yes," I said, "at the very least concussed, possibly gashed, depending on whether it hit me in the scalp or in the face. It probably wouldn't have hit me in the neck." (See, I told you I was disaster-minded.) "I'm so glad you are all right," she cried, and gave me a big hug. "Who would have done your job if you were hurt?" 

Friday: 

Ms Swann, our office administrator and my friend, had called in ill all week. She had surgery a few months ago and it's been a slow recovery for her. She never called in sick before the surgery so when she's ill, she's ill. On Friday, no one had heard from her. She has alternate Fridays off, so most people assumed it was her day off. Later, we realized it wasn't her Friday off, and since she didn't call in, we all got very worried. There was no answer at her home phone, nor on her cell phone. After a few hours, my boss called her emergency contacts to find out any info. Ms Swann lives alone and we were all concerned that she was at home, too ill to contact anyone. Finally, late afternoon, Ms Swann called me. She did call in that morning; to the same person she'd called every day. Unfortunately, that person just happened to take that Friday off. Ms Swann had been at the doctor's all day. She's developed a complication to the surgery she had, and so had to undergo a battery of tests. 

Saturday:

Well, y'all already know about Jasper. Perhaps it was a silly thing to authorize euthanasia on a kitten that was already dying, but I couldn't bear the little guy to suffer. However, the other kittens seem to be all right. Alert, active, stools look ok. And...slowly but surely, they are getting better at using the litter box. In these potentially tough economic times, I encourage you to buy stock in Nature's Miracle. I foresee brisk product sales, at least in S. End Tacoma. 

Sunday: 

Dead car battery. Our neighbor kindly gave us a jump and we went to Sears to get a new battery. It was packed, "crazy busy" as the attendant told us, so we had no choice but to try to kill 2. 5 hours until the car was ready. Yes, changing a battery is really easy, but it's first come first served at Sears, and there were 10 cars ahead of us. Oscar and I walked the length of the mall (kill me now), then walked over to TGIF for a late lunch/early dinner, and got a craptastic, overpriced meal. My mood was really foul by the time we got back to Sears. Between the kitten care and the car, I've spent nearly $300 this weekend (does not include craptastic TGIF meal).

Some good news though. Our neighbors next door are moving, and the woman has already moved out ("staying with friends") and took the annoying, yappy dogs with her. Yay! But the bad news--they aren't taking their other two dogs, who are still here. These are good dogs, good natured and very sweet, and this just pisses me off. I'll call the Humane Society and get some advice on fostering, and then approach the neighbors saying I'll take them and get new homes for them through the Humane Society. One of the dogs is a pit bull, and I fear that a "free pit bull" will attract the wrong sort of home for him. 

I think I will go to bed now.