Have you ever had one of those days where everything seemed to be going wrong? Well, it happened to me last Thursday. I spent most of the morning wondering if I should just go back to bed. Before evening, I was ready to climb under the bed.
My morning started out as any other: I woke up at 5:45 a.m. to take my 10,000 steps before breakfast. I accomplished another morning of steps, ate my breakfast, and got ready for work. As I walked out the door, I was blissfully unaware my day was about to spin into uncontrolled chaos.
When I went to start my car, all I heard was clicking. I said a silent prayer and tried it again. It continued to click. Most of you can feel my pain. No one enjoys the moment of feeling helpless because this is the only vehicle you have. It sounded like the battery. I found that hard to believe because I had put a new one in it.
I got hold of a good friend who drove all the way out to my house and used his vehicle to start mine. I drove from my house to the business where I purchased the battery. The service guy tested the battery and it was dead. It wouldn’t even accept a charge. I got a new one for free – a piece of good news.
After waiting for almost an hour, I was free to go. I went to turn on the car and it did this hesitation thing, acted like it didn’t want to continue running and my check engine light was on. I ques-tioned it with the service guy. He suggested I take it and have it tested. I did. The test indicated my accelerator pedal sensor was defective. They said that sensor had to come from the dealership – sounded like dollar signs to me.
I stood there quietly listening to this auto expert tell me I should drive it for a little while and see what happens – maybe the computer needs time to reboot from having the battery changed – as I’m doing that, my sunglasses break. Anyone who knows me knows I can’t live without them. I have them on me at all times.
I finally get to work at about 11:30 a.m. and tried to tap into some semblance of normalcy. I get my day started by calling City Hall to obtain some information for an article. I go up and I’m on the third floor when the smoke alarm goes off.
I think “Are you serious? I can’t believe this is happening.” I assumed it’s a drill. With the day I’m having, I had every intention of ignoring it. That thought process ended when I smelled smoke and heard Shirley Durham’s voice telling everyone to get out of the building.
I hate to end this column on a cliff hanger, but I’m out of room and this column has to be continued next Sunday....

Everyone was evacuated from City Hall. As I’m leaving the building, I call my editor. The conversation started like “You will never believe what’s happening to me now…” My car not starting, the battery messing up sensors on my car, and now I’m being forced out of City Hall because of a smoke alarm. It’s so unbelievable that it has to be true.
As I’m standing across the street, I see McMinnville Fire Chief Kendall Mayfield driving down it. I wave and smile as Kendall passes. He has this quizzical look on his face so he’s obviously unaware about what’s going on. Although he couldn’t hear me as he slowly passed, I was saying “Your City Hall is on fire.” The call must have gone out after he passed because he then pulled up right behind the firetruck.
As it turns out, the smoke detectors were set off by someone toasting their bread for lunch. I was relieved to know it wasn’t my mere presence in the building. However, they need to restrict that person to untoasted bread.
When I finally got back to work, my cellphone rings. It was a guy out at my house working on my water problem. For the last five weeks or so, we had no water pressure at my house. It was so bad that we couldn’t use two faucets at once and taking a shower was almost impossible.
My water problem started after the water department (not one in Warren County) came out and worked on my meter. When I called questioning why I had no water pressure, they came and checked their end and said it must be my water pressure regulator which is on my end and therefore, my problem. While I couldn’t help but notice the coincidence between their work and my problems, I still called a local business to find out how it might cost: $300 to $400. That requires some saving.
The guy currently at my house was recommended by a friend. He questioned me about the work done to the meter and if someone would have turned the main water value under my house down. I dismissed that idea because I’m the only one that does work under my house and I didn’t turn it down. He turned the outside faucet on (which just dribbled water), reached under the house and turned the main value. Water gushed out of the outside faucet.
After about five weeks of living with minimal water pressure, I’m somewhat upset to learn someone turned down the water pressure to my house and failed to turn it back up. I have my suspicious on who did it (the water department), but I’ll keep it to myself.
These are just the highlights of my day on June 25. Yes, there is more. It was a day of craziness.
Standard reporter Lisa Hobbs can be reached at 473-2191.

This column was split into two parts for our print edition. The first part ran Sunday, June 28.