The nut ! It moves !

Finally ...

Found a tool that let me budge those rusty nuts ... If only ever so slightly. I've given up on the loo repair for now, as multiple things are conspiring against the lazy solution :

Rusty nuts
Lack of access

(It only took so long before starting the repair because I knew I'd need to have the heating turned off with the mains water and I didn't want to freeze).

It's actually the lack of access that's the killer, a friend at work lent me a pair of small molegrips that managed to turn one of the rusty nuts about 10 degrees. But that was it because, even though they are tiny teeny molegrips, there's just not enough room around the nuts to get a tool in.

So I'll leave it another few days (cos I'm currently sick of the job and am having severe* energy issues right now) for frustration to ease away. Then I'll look seriously at replacement loos and methods of switching them over. I'm pretty confident I can do that job, although I might need a hand with the lifting. All my strength is in my legs, there's not much in my arms.
*(had something at start of the week that bit back - either bad milk or a definite "avoid pizza for like - forever")

Talking of strength ... There's someone out there who is being a total legend at the moment.

Not only is she dealing with an incredibly difficult situation at home and letting no trace of that leak through to work, she's also caught up in what is akin to a custody battle at work. They're moving all the teams around soon ... with my project being one of the ones which is getting moved. We'd like to keep our best people with us though and this lady definitely counts as The Best. She's been one of the reasons our project has been so good to work for over the years.

And, as is common in a lot of custody battles, there are people who aren't playing fair which just makes the situation that much tougher to live through.

I know it's affecting her but you wouldn't notice in how she's keeping going. But she is deserving of all the hugs she can get.

Earlier, I had a look back at the first days of this blog to see how I handled a similar home situation and the answer is : I ran (again). In my case, although initially I reacted ok I was utterly dumbstruck by my partner wanting to move out. I had an idea it was coming, due to a couple of events combined with a growing feeling about it. So when the time came, my reaction was along the lines of "if you love them enough, you have to let them go". But not fighting it doesn't make it any easier, I was hurting a lot and really didn't want to see her again because at a deep level, I felt betrayed. Being hurt makes us do things a saner mind would be horrified at.

Even though I was ready for it, I had trouble adjusting to it and didn't come to terms with that breakup for a very long time. It helped that I have a bunch of awesome friends (and an understanding boss) who were amazing in having the patience to help me through it. I guess I'm still coming to terms with that break up and I need to properly talk it through with someone I trust utterly. (I'd count candidates on the fingers of 1 hand).

Oh - what did I mean by running from it ? I'd just started playing Warcraft together with some friends at work and basically buried myself in work and that game for the next 6 months until my brain nearly imploded on me. The snapping point came when I felt no longer able to do my part as the Guild Leader due to stuff going on.

The friend who's struggling at the moment is most definitely one of those who helped me through that time. Just by being around at work and listening when I needed to babble insanely (I can't actually remember too much of around that time).

And through that listening, she's definitely earned as much time as she asks of me for listening, talking or even just getting away from the stress with a bit of Sleepy insanity. But I'd do that anyway ! That's me - help a friend before sorting out my own stuff :-)

Last thing to post is a picture I've used before :

PS It made me grin reading this post where I first started using codenames, with the Snow Queen promptly guessing it straight away as always. It shows how long my project has been great to work for. And there was 5 years before I started the blog too :-)