Trauma = An event or situation that causes great distress and disruption
My landlord authorized the installation of a new dishwasher at my duplex. The appliance company called last week to make arrangements for a time to come to my place. It was set up to happen today, Friday afternoon; I was told that they would call before coming. However, yesterday, when I got to work… I had a message on voice mail from the appliance company calling to confirm the time. When I returned the phone call, I was informed that the technician had just return to the shop and my new dishwasher was already installed.
On one hand I was glad that this project was done. Yet, I was bugged that it happened on a day not planned.
First thing when I arrived home last night… I walked into the kitchen to check out this awesome new unit. Immediately I hear a muffled, sad meowing. I thought that it was crazy to think Philip’s orange cat, Peach, would be inside the new dishwasher. That would be just unthinkable. Right? I opened the door. Empty. Yet the meowing got louder and more desperate. I looked in the cabinets next to the dishwasher. No Peach. I called her.
My heart completely sank when I realized that Peach was trapped underneath the dishwasher. Since I had had a long day… was really tired… I basically freaked out and started screaming. I made Philip investigate if there was some holes from the cabinets while I called the appliance company. No holes in the cabinets and no answer on the phone. So at the dishwasher, I reached down and yanked on the metal plate at the bottom. Philip ran to get a screw driver and proceeded to remove the bottom panel’s screws. Then, with some effort and a very painful pinched hand, I was able to make the panel give enough so that Peach could squeeze out.
The inside of the dishwasher was wet. Therefore, Peach must have been underneath when the technician tested the unit. She was trapped under there all day.
Of course later I found out that there was two more screws that we didn’t see in our panic. So I probably was all freaked out unnecessarily.
Anyway… I took a sick day this morning to recover.