Back in the days of our youth, #1 and #2 were roommates. We were lucky to have relatively spacious dorms, with one bathroom per room. (The only downside? We had to clean it ourselves.)
Our toilet randomly flushed itself. We decided that our toilet was possessed by a ghost, and we named him Fred. The next year there were toilet clogs and light flickers.
Fred followed #2 to college and was finally exorcised by a friend who dabbled in things Wicca (and new-age). He would show up occasionally in graduate school (at which point #2 started thinking Fred might be a gremlin rather than a ghost), mainly sticking to plumbing and electrical things. He will often do both at the same time but thankfully has not as of yet had the chance to mix the two. (We like being, you know, alive.)
Now Fred’s back to make #2’s day a difficult one…
No work today. We have a severe Fred infestation. My laptop, desktop, and external hard drive are all dead. My laptop no longer boots and started smoking while not booting. My desktop has been reformatted because it keeps restarting and getting the video card replaced didn’t fix it. And my external harddrive has bad sectors and has been getting “i/o errors” which I understand is a bad thing. Partner’s laptop has this stupid red dot thing; where is my external mouse? The internet at work keeps turning on and off. Also all of our sinks have been leaking and partner broke a pipe trying to fix one. And two of our toilets are randomly refilling. It will be a while before either of us will be able to wait for a plumber.
#1 had a good day though. I just got word that I have passed another level in my tenure process!
#2: maybe Fred is sticking with me to bring you luck
in which case, I will take that temporary sacrifice
#1: I really appreciate your taking one for the team.
Hope your Thanksgiving holidays are Fred-free, dear grumplings!
November 21, 2012 at 7:25 am
Congratulations, #1!
#2 – Try some holy water!
November 21, 2012 at 7:45 am
It has been a *long* time since #2 has gone to church… but the only thing in walking distance to her house *is* a Catholic church. Hm… *ponders*.
November 21, 2012 at 7:52 am
Congrats and happy thanksgiving!
November 21, 2012 at 7:53 am
w00t on tenure level process passage!
November 21, 2012 at 10:16 am
Thanks! It’ll probably be March before things have passed all stages but I feel a very happy Thanksgiving coming on.
November 21, 2012 at 9:23 am
Congrats to #1! As for #2, might be time to burn some sage or light some candles. If it’s a gremlin, don’t feed it or get it wet.
November 21, 2012 at 9:39 am
Congrats to #1! Also, it may be Fred or it may be what I call the Holiday Curse, which goes something like this: whenever there is a long weekend or holiday, when finding someone to fix the sink/the furnace/the car/the computer is going to be either extremely expensive or impossible, something will break.
November 21, 2012 at 3:43 pm
I love ghost stories, so thanks for sharing about your Fred. (Loved that book “A Ghost Named Fred” back in the day). Congrats on passing another tenure process level, #1!
That’s rough, #2. You could try telling Fred his antics are not welcome – he’s got to stop it or you’ll Bettlejuice his arse.
November 21, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Yay on tenure process. I’m no help on Fred; as kids, we had a poltergeist who occasionally did things like, you know, draw in crayon on the walls, or track mud onto the clean floor, but not play with plumbing ;) . Sorry he’s arrived just at the time of the holiday.
Speaking of, off to make my contribution to tomorrow’s feast: chocolate mousse. Oh, so many mixing bowls to lick …
November 21, 2012 at 6:37 pm
DO WANT
November 22, 2012 at 6:49 am
The plumber came the day before yesterday and now the toilet is mysteriously refilling itself again. It was Fred-free for one day. Maybe we do need holy water. I wonder if ground sage can burn without exploding…