Taxes, Contractors, and Chaos

The title should give a pretty good indication as to how unpleasant life has been lately. I have reached my tolerance limits with the chaotic home repair situation. I'm so glad that Mark is much better at handling things like this than I am. At this moment, the contents of our first-floor bathroom (including toilet, sink, vanity, etc.) are in our dining room.  The entire floor is ripped out of the bathroom, so there's a big gaping hole there and it's quite cold. So far the plumber has made the necessary repairs using pipes that won't freeze, the insulation guys have done their thing and assure us that everything is so well insulated that it will never freeze again, the electrician has repaired the wires that were cut when the floor was removed, and now they will start putting the floor in and the bathroom back together, then the basement ceiling/wall can be repaired.  Then we can start replacing the items/furniture destroyed in the flood and get our family room and office back together.  I'm thinking we should be back to normal in 2-3 more weeks.

When all the pipes were ripped out, we found that there were a total of six burst pipes. We knew there were at least three (because of the three separate incidents in three days), but were fairly surprised to see six!

The biggest challenge and stressor is keeping the animals safely contained.  The cats have had the worst of it.  They had to remove the bathroom door, and with no floor, the cats could get back there and disappear into the walls or under the floors. With the contractors and all of their equipment coming in and out, that also presents a danger in cats getting hurt and/or escaping. While the contractors are here, they have to be locked in the various bedrooms, which makes them VERY unhappy.  It is quite challenging to track them all down in the morning, make sure they are in rooms with friends (there are a few sworn enemies who cannot be put in a room together), and get them all stuffed in there without the others escaping. We have to make sure someone is here at all times to ensure their safety.  When the contractors are not here, they are allowed free reign again, but that back entryway is only blocked off by plastic and gates, so we have to be here to make sure they don't find a way into the danger zone.  

The loud noises, vibrations, and smells are stressful and unpleasant for Mark and I.  Given that the animals hear and smell much better than we do, we know that it's definitely taking a toll on them. I feel tremendously guilty for putting them through all of this, but there really isn't any alternative.

The poor cats have also temporarily lost access to their outdoor enclosure, because we had to move it to allow access to a crawl space that their enclosure was blocking.  They are finished with that area now, so as soon as we can get some muscle to come help, we can get the enclosure back in place. The cats will be so happy to have access to their full territory again.  I feel so bad for them, because they don't understand any of this mess--just that the quality of life has diminished.  Their lives should be completely back to normal by next week.

Taxes are done, but what is normally a fairly unpleasant task turned into a nightmare this year due to a bug in this year's version of Turbo Tax.  It was an ugly bug and their tech support left much to be desired.  It took me almost five hours to figure out and fix the problems that this bug created. Finally, after several days of posts by angry users, TT says they are working on a fix and will let people know when it's resolved.  Lovely. It is shockingly unprofessional to have such an amateur-level bug in a production release of software that is dealing with such sensitive and important data.  I have used TT most of my adult life, but I will definitely be looking for different options next year. This was a pretty egregious error, and clearly their quality assurance process was either omitted or rushed through.  I don't feel inclined to trust them with something as important as tax data with such inadequate testing.  I feel pretty stressed about taxes this year. I've never questioned their accuracy before, but I'm terrified that somehow I will end up having to redo them or pay some kind of fine. UGH!  As if taxes aren't bad enough on their own!

I am struggling with some issues with my work outs, and this is one of those times that I could really use a community of experts, but I don't have any. I enjoy working out more than just about anything--it's probably tied with writing code as my favorite way to pass time.  I've noticed, though, the last couple of weeks, that I'm hitting walls. Not only am I not progressing, but have actually been struggling with workouts that I could normally do without much effort. In a couple of cases I've had to lower my weight, and that's just horrifying. Much to my dismay, my extensive research indicates that I have probably over trained.  I would so much rather have found that I need to double or triple my workout time/intensity than I need to back off a bit.  

Because I hate that answer, I want to seek expert advice. There is a chance that I'm wrong, and I'd really hate to back off if it's not absolutely vital. I'm not sure where to start in finding an expert who can honestly evaluate the situation.  It seems absurd that a healthy, fit, robust person should be able to maintain a 6-day a week, 45-minute per day workout schedule. This is not excessive. I'm so incredibly frustrated by this!  I even tried to compromise over the last month by dropping down to 5-days/week on my Asylum weeks (every other week), but I noticed tonight it was worse than ever. I really struggled with what is normally one of my easier workouts. What I haven't figured out is (if I do indeed need to back off a bit) exactly how much and for how long. My mental health and happiness really depend on not just working out but on very intense working out. I really don't enjoy things if I can't do them at full intensity.  I think at this point, I may have to go to an MD, because I know my brain, and it will question and not accept anyone who tells me I've over trained unless I see scientific evidence. Ha! So glad I "talked through this!"  Now I need to go do some research to find out there are any tests that can definitely determine this...

This was absolutely not the post I intended to write. I guess I needed to do a little venting/whining.  I'm not adding pictures of my chaotic home repair mess, my taxes, or me working out, instead, a couple of pics of some of L's digital art.