The day started out good today – we were up early(ish) and Layla was pleasant(ish). It seemed like things were going to go well. The sun was shining, the baby was eating breakfast, the wife was getting ready for work. Everything was on time.
Then I checked Layla’s temperature.
37.3 degrees.
Hardly anything to be concerned about, unless your daycare considers 37.5 to be a fever and reason to keep your contagious child away from the other children. Instead of panicking, we let Layla finish breakfast, get dressed and ready to go like nothing was wrong. It’s not really a problem if we ignore it, right?
Before we left, I checked Layla’s temperature one more time. 37.0. Good enough for me, so I grabbed her and dumped her on the daycare staff and was gone before they had a chance to stick a thermometer in her armpit. Luckily, they never called all day so I guess she survived.
On my way to work, I reserved a seat on the train home, timing it so I could meet Tamie and Layla, who would be coming from Grandma’s house. Thankfully, there was a seat available. Again, except for the minor temperature hiccup, everything was going smoothly…
Work seemed to go well, until my boss had a meeting with a customer. 30 minutes after they started their meeting, we got a call reporting a bug. Not a big deal – all part of the job. A short while after that, another phone call. Another bug. Two bugs for the two developers still in the office – easy. Comes with the territory. Luckily, there were no more phone calls after that…
All was quiet… 6:00 rolled around and the other developer was about to go home… of course, that’s when errors start happening and we realize that our database server is out of disk space. Oops.
For the next two and a half hours, we were knee deep in investigations without a sniff of leaving. Around 8:47, we had done enough (or were tired enough) to feel it was safe to go home. Now, 8:47 might sound late but it’s really not that bad, compared to some nights. The bad part was the colleague who wanted to leave at 6 — he got to the office early (7:30am) today. On top of that, my seat on the train to meet Tamie and Layla was for 8:30… argh.
So I didn’t meet Tamie and Layla. What I did meet was a rainstorm when I finally got back to Ebina. And here I was without my umbrella. And without any money to buy one.
I headed over to the bank to withdraw some money only to find it locked up tight. Here’s something (else) that doesn’t make sense to me about this country — ATM’s that are not 24 hours. After banking hours, I have to pay an extra fee to withdraw money, but only while the ATM’s are actually open. I’m not sure what time they close but I am sure that it’s before 10pm.
So I ran home in the rain, cutting through the grocery store that I would have bought some dinner at, had I any money. Luckily, the torrential downpour stopped by the time I got to the other side of the store. I walked home, grateful that the storm blew over quickly.
At the apartment, there were three packages waiting for me to carry upstairs. Tamie had ordered diapers from Amazon and they arrived with another, thankfully smaller, mystery package. I decided to take the elevator, double-checking that I pushed 3. I didn’t want to wake up anymore unsuspecting neighbours.
I dropped the packages at home, took some money from Tamie, and then headed back out to get some grub to eat. We needed cereal and milk for tomorrow morning, and I needed a beer tonight.
As I stepped around the corner, on my way to the grocery store, I stepped in a huge puddle. Just great. I hope the waterproofing I put on those new shoes works.
After picking up a couple things, I headed back outside to go home. The rain had started again… no, sorry – the STORM had started again. The cats and dogs from the previous drizzling were huddled under a bench while the wolves and tigers fell from the sky. The rain drops were so big they hurt when they hit you. Yah, it was rough.
By the time I made it home, I was soaked. A quick change of clothes and a quick beer and food later, and I’m here typing this tale of woe.
Luckily, tomorrow is another day. Here’s hoping it’s one of those other days.
