Monday, August 01, 2005

Expressions of the Royal Hiney

Oh it's been a trying day here at Deerledge. The subjects are in an uproar, chaos reigns and there's no end in sight.

Gary's helper couldn't work today because he had to attend a funeral so that means.....you guessed it... Gary up my butt all day. Not that I mind, it's just that it's not what I had planned. So, I rode with him this morning to do a service call, dealt with Route 1 traffic on a cloudy day in August (are we crazy?) and he, Hannah and I went out to lunch. He was on his way to dragging us up to Portland to go shopping and his pager went off and he had to do a service call. pheeeew. yee haw. I needed a break!

Strolling through the living room to turn on the air conditioner, I noticed that my angelfish, Fins, was swimming upside down. "What in the world?" I say. "Turn around and swim correctly, Fins!" Glancing to the back of the tank, I notice another fish laying on the bottom in what appears to be the sleep of death. Looking to the top, a neon tetra is just bobbing along belly-up. "Oh no! What's happening?!" I look at the thermometer and it reads 115 degrees. I do a double take... yes 115 degrees! No wonder the fish are dropping like flies... they are cooking to death. The dial on the heater just spins freely without shutting off. I pull the plug on the heater, withdraw a couple gallons of water, start throwing our cocktail ice cubes into the tank and pouring cold tap water in as well. A few fish start to perk up right away but I'm pretty sad that I lost 6 fish so far. Six of my oldest fish that I've had for three years. Not that they are pets of any type, I just get attached to my stuff. So, without further ado, I guess a trip to the pet store is in order for a new thermometer and some replacement fish.

Hannah did not want to smile for me with her tiara on. "Come on Hannah" I begged. "Just a little smile...please!" A smirk, a harrumph, and a ho-hum later, she finally got it right.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

She is a cutie!

Fellow Mainer here....

Sue said...

Hello princess! Sorry about your fish, the same thing happened to me this spring.

Joel said...

Sorry about the fish. I used to have fish but GAVE IT UP! I sear I couldn't keep the algae out and the fish were alway dying...maybe I should have cleaned it more than once a year and added water before it got below HALF out...

Melody said...

Love the pictures...she's such a cutie. Bre froze her fish once....sorry about yours.

Beth said...

I just caught up on all your posts. Phew! I love the pictures. I don't know why I didn't have you linked. I thought I did, but now I need to. Is that okay? I hope the rest of your fishies make it!

Julie said...

That is the exact reason that I gave up on my aquarium. Too many lost fish and broke hearts. Some of us just aren't cut out for this type of endeavor. You did well to keep yours that long though...I was told that life expectancy of fish is like only one year. Don't know if it's true or not.
Your little beauty queen is just that...a real beauty. My child NEVER smiles for the camera and when she does she hates the picture and won't let me display it.
Good luck with the new fish.

Willow said...

Awww, poor Sushi. Glad you finally figured it out before you lost them all, though. (We lost a plecky and now Kasha's tank is ravaged by algae - yuck! We've got a job to do today!)

I love, love, LOVE the second picture! LOL!

Unknown said...

Hannah is too cute. She's gonna be trouble ;). Love the tiara!!

Kim said...

lol Sheri, my kids turned the heater on the aquarium up once too, cooked every fish in the tank they did... Hannah is a cutie, smiles or not.