So who else is feeling challenged right now? 🙋♀️
I’ve been doing quite well so far this year but the last week has been a litany of little disasters culminating in a weekend where I felt like running away from my house and living somewhere else.
It started last week when the bracket that holds my shower head up broke so it just sits at the bottom of the post and I have no idea how to fix it. Not the end of the world – I still have hot water coming through the shower, I just have to hold it up above my head when I’m using it.
At some point last week I also knocked my elbow. You know when you get it deep down in the funny bone crease and it hurts like nothing else? I did that.
There were a few other small things but it culminated in a weekend that has left me absolutely exhausted. Something started beeping on Saturday afternoon which I managed to ignore for a bit but then realised I’d need to deal with it. Discovered it was the house alarm control unit that needed batteries.
I don’t like dealing with this because I inherited the alarm with the house and I’m always scared I’m going to set it off. So I put the codes in to open the unit door but forgot to switch the sirens off and scared the shit out of myself. Closed the door and decided to try again later.
Put the codes in to deactivate everything I could and decided to take a break. When I went back, one of the codes now doesn’t work. No idea how that happened, I wouldn’t believe it if someone had told me the same but I have no idea what happened. It was getting late so I decided to leave it until the morning in case the alarm went off again and I didn’t want to piss the neighbours off as well as scare myself.
Had an absolutely terrible sleep as I could hear the beeping all night and kept getting worried that the alarm was going to go off in the night and I wouldn’t be able to stop it with the code that no longer worked (I mean, seriously how does it just stop working??).
In the end, I got a bit of sleep, and when I woke up I remembered that I had actually deactivated all the alarms (I think) so put my big girl pants on and decided to see what happens. I got the batteries out with no siren and was feeling really pleased with myself until I heard another beep. I checked the unit several times and nothing was happening then realised that the beep was coming from the vicinity of the lounge and kitchen.
I moved slowly around the downstairs trying to work out where it was coming from and decided it was one of the alarm sensors which are in the lounge and kitchen. I very gingerly took them out of their brackets (they’re right up in the top corners of each room) and removed the batteries from them. One of them had very crusty batteries so clearly they haven’t been working for a while!
Then I heard the beep again. I decided it was definitely coming from the lounge but where the hell from?! It really sounded like it was coming from the area I’d just taken the sensor from so I took the bracket off the wall which revealed a little square of pillar box red paint (ugh) on my lovely creamy coloured wall. I thought maybe there was something behind the bracket but there wasn’t.
Then it beeped again! Where on earth was this coming from and why couldn’t I find it???? I unplugged my Nest sensor because that was underneath where the alarm had been. I unplugged the printer which was nearby too. Sat down on the sofa then it went again. I sat with my head in my hands thinking that someone was just trying to torture me. I was soooo tired, so frustrated and was on the verge of ringing someone and saying that I’d pay them anything they wanted to de-beep my house. I think I even cried a bit from frustration.
I took a break then started looking around from the sofa. I realised that one of my smoke alarms was sitting on the side because I’d taken it down to change the batteries the week before. As I’d been switching stuff off and removing batteries left, right and centre I thought I might as well try that one too. So I removed the brand new batteries and after a few minutes realised that there’d been no beep.
So I waited a little longer and plugged in some of the stuff I’d unplugged earlier. Still no beep! Hallelujah, I’d found the beeping source!! Only problem now is that there’s clearly an issue with my smoke alarm that needs to be sorted out.
It was such a frustrating few days but I realised quite a lot during this time about how to deal with challenges and what I’d learned in the past.
1. Trying to be rational when you haven’t slept very well is really, really difficult
2. Give yourself a break when you feel like that, because you will often come up with a new path to try when you have a break
3. Try looking at things from a different perspective. Yours isn’t working so well right now so trying something different lets you see a potential solution you hadn’t thought of before
4. Keep persevering. If you give up, you definitely won’t solve the problem!
5. Call in help if you feel like you can’t do it yourself. I didn’t do it this time but I was absolutely willing to do it.
So here’s to a less challenging week next week 🎉💖
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