January 22, 1997
At one time of another we all make reference to “Murphy’s Law” – that old adage that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Lately I’ve decided that law is the only one in control of my life.
It all started when we decided put new carpeting in our offices. Knowing we would never be satisfied with new carpeting in old offices we decided to do a little “remodeling” while we were at it. Perhaps new lights in the reception office – so we could read the classified ads when they are submitted!
It took only a few days to discover that when you are working in a building that is well over 100 years old and has been remodeled in varying amounts several times you are bound to have problems.
When the old lights came down, we found problems with the wiring. To fix that they disconnected some of the power. Turned out the lines crisscross the building and shutting off lines in the front office put the entire second floor in the dark! We decided to rearrange the office and thereby had to reverse the cold air and the heating ducts.
We wanted to place the counter in a different direction and had to redirect another cold air return. That resulted in an open space between the paneling. I’m still trying to think of a creative way to cover that problem.
When the new lights came in two were damaged and had to be returned.
All of this is taking a lot of time because we’re doing the work ourselves in our “odd” hours. And odd they are – usually in the dead of night when we’re too tired to work and it’s too dark to see!
But the topper came this week when the pipes above the back editorial office froze and then broke dumping gallons of water over the new carpet and bringing the old plaster ceiling down with it.
We have now had three days of mopping, drying, tearing down ceiling and calling plumbers. The water is running in the pipes again, the carpeting is pulled back and slowly drying and we are all waiting for the next episode of our remodeling saga.
If no more mishaps occur we hope to have our new office open for business by our 50th anniversary date of Feb. 6. We ask that all of you who stop by will be understanding, and bear with us. After all, not too much more can happen – I hope!
If all does go well, we’re planning a celebration for Feb. 6 with cake for all who care to come and share our anniversary with us.
GCB