[rhondalea]

I reported in another thread that the many supplements I take have gone a long way to healing my cognitive dysfunction. Today, however, I discovered that I have a stress threshhold, and if I exceed it, chaos will ensue.

For the last couple of years, I've had custody of my daughter's red-eared slider. Jessie is a big turtle, so she lives in a big tank (in my kitchen). Periodically (every two weeks), I drain and refill the tank with a sink siphon. Sink siphons require running water to work--you fill the siphon with water and then you flip a switch to start the backflow into the drain. If you turn off the running water, the siphoning action stops.

Today, after a week of high stress, I forgot to flip the switch before I left the room. When I finally came back to reality, there was a half inch of water on the kitchen floor. That wouldn't be so bad, but the hall carpet was dark and squishy from the living room to the bathroom. The pièce de résistance was the dripping lightbulbs in the basement reflecting off the stream running toward the sump pump.

Oh, it was glorious. And y'know, I looked at it and thought, "There's no way I can mop up all this water--I'll just have to wait for it to dry."

Can you imagine? Seriously? "Wait for it to dry"?

I was so boggled by it all that I zoned out to the fantasy of telling my husband he'd just have to wade to the refrigerator until the flood waters receded. (Serves him right for laughing at me half a year ago when I contemplated the purchase of a wet vac.)

Anyway, I have mopped it up, although there were several associated messes early in the process because I could neither think nor focus on account of the added stress imposed by the flood. Ultimately, the clean-up--a slow and methodical process--was relaxing, so I'm pretty okay right about now.

I just hope I don't do it again.