In Canada, I think Boxing Day is a bit like Black Friday. My day has been a bit different than I thought it would be:

9am – wake up and notice that it is snowing.

9:15am – wake up again, call my brother, S., because he had to work yesterday.

9:16am – leave a message for S., who doesn’t answer the phone.

9:17am – lie in bed again.

9:45am – get up.

9:50am – stretch for exactly 8 minutes.

9:58am -flip the TV on.

10:00am – watch pointless TV, because it is about the 90s. I remember the 90s with fondness and a brief shudder.

10:45am – decide to clean the house before I shower.

10:46am – vaccuum the living room rug.

10:55am – sweep the main floor.

11:15am – collect the garbage.

11:18am – decide I should shovel the path to the garbage in the back lane.

11:20am – outside, in my pyjamas and shoes, shovelling.

11:40am – deposit garbage in bin, after clearing 18 inches of snow from the lid.

11:41am – decide to shovel the path to the front of the house too.

11:55am – finish shovelling the half of the stairs that are clear.

11:56am – back inside, roll up my wet pantlegs, notice that my hand is bleeding a little.

11:59am – decide to clean the bathroom surfaces before showering.

12:10pm – finally showertime.

12:11pm – decide to soak in the bath first.

12:17pm – getting into tub.

12:18pm – reading in tub.

12:40pm – showering and getting out of tub.

12:45pm – notice the tap is dripping still.

12:47pm – can’t turn the tap off…so I go get dressed.

12:55pm – still can’t turn the tap off. I put a bucket under and decide to watch it.

1:15pm – hm. hot water collecting. I google “how to fix a leaky faucet.”

1:17pm – general consensus is that I need to turn the hot water off first.

1:19pm – move the guys’ kitchen shelves to access the hot water tank. I follow the hot water pipe all the way along the ceiling and into K’s room. No place to turn it off.

1:29pm – look everywhere I can think of. Nowhere to turn it off. Reread googled instructions…definitely need to turn hot water off first.

1:32pm – fret about wasting hot water and the bill that we will get.

1:38pm – email D, who is on his way back to town. Ask for our fix-it guy’s number.

1:48pm – jiggle the tap some more. COME ON, turn off!

1:58pm – text D to ask for number.

2:01pm – D calls and gives me the fix-it guy’s number.

2:05pm – I call fix-it guy. He is going to a family gathering soon and the roads are treacherous…the valve to turn it off should be in the closet just outside the bathroom.

2:08pm – I empty the closet in search of the valve. No valves. No pipes. I wonder if he meant the cupboards, and I check in them too. Nothing.

2:30pm – I call the fix-it guy again. He will see what he can do after his family shindig. I decide to find a creative solution for my ripped lampshade, using materials found in my closet raiding.

2:38pm – D arrives home. He has adventures from the roads.

2:45pm – D checks out leaking faucet. I go back to my lampshade.

2:50pm – D does stuff and looks around for a solution. This includes pulling out the drawers UNDER the cupboards where I previously looked. Pipes, check. Valves – no check.

3:10pm – It is worse. And I don’t like the lampshade.

3:20pm -I do dishes using the hot water that is collecting in our bathroom.

3:30pm – D and I ask what we should do? D doesn’t like messing with plumbing (or auto mechanics, apparently these are the two things that should be left to the pros) and calls fix-it guy again.

3:40pm – D on the phone with fix-it guy. Trying to find the valve.

3:45pm – fix-it guy is going to come later. D has turned down the hot water.

3:50pm – it sounds like someone is running a bath. I write this blog. It has recently stopped snowing.

4pm – Arrested Development Season 2 begins.

4:10pm – snowing again.

4:25pm – fix-it guy is en route.

4:50pm – fix-it guy arrives.

5:20pm – fix-it guy is done. All fixed. Back to TV.

5:30pm – Arrested Development.

6pm – The IT Crowd.

7pm – Law & Order.