This has been the week of “if it can go wrong, it will.”

Tuesday morning I woke up with a sore throat at 6 a.m. By 7:30, the time I generally leave for work, I was so dizzy and feverish that I knew driving a half hour wouldn’t be an option. By 2 p.m., my fever had soared to 103, and I was just barely able to walk down the hall to the bathroom. That was not a good day, and I’m feeling only a little better today, two days later.

Then, last night at 9:12 p.m., my doorbell rang several times, followed by an insistent knocking. Because I didn’t have my boot on, I couldn’t make it to the door in time, so I sent Donna. She opened the door to my downstairs neighbor, who was frantic: “We have a real emergency here. Our laundry room is flooding.” I didn’t quite follow the train of thought right away, though after a brief investigation it became clear that our hot water heater was the problem: leaking from the cold water pipe at the top. Ugh.

I called PSE&G at 9:30, who assured me they would have a technician out shortly. At 11:45, there was still no technician, and I was unable to get hold of a live person, so we called a local plumber. He arrived within 45 minutes, shut off the water and wrote up an estimate within 20 minutes.

Now I have the unenviable task of telling my landlord it’s going to cost her $1500, all told, to have the thing replaced. Ugh.

I didn’t get to sleep until well after 2 a.m., and I woke up with a jolt at 5 a.m. I have no idea why I’m still awake (It’s 8 now).

P.S. – When I called PSE&G this morning to find out what happened last night, the “customer service rep” told me that the appointment was rescheduled for today because a tech couldn’t get here by midnight. I told her the tech was no longer needed, as I had the problem addressed last night and she hung up on me. Great service, eh?