There are times I should do only what has to be done. But, things happen…
This time I had three speaking engagements in Vermont and Montréal, Canada in just three days in May. The day before leaving I spent most of the day before getting ready for the trip. Susie had booked us on an early morning flight meaning we had to get up at 2:30 AM to make the trip from the farm to Austin. We were shipping fish, so that complicated matters. Even worse, we were using United air cargo, a company we hadn’t used in a while. We had to get there at their opening in case there were problems. There were, but more of that later.
To further complication things, I bit off more than I could chew the day before we left. First, we did fish. I had Ashley process some livebearers (three varieties of swordtails) while I processed some cichlids, Metriaclima greshakei (Red Top Cobalt Zebra). Then, for some reason, I decided to breakdown and move our 130 gallon cichlid photography aquarium. Seeing I couldn’t finish that, I aborted it half way through. Instead I should have spent the time checking water pumps before being gone four days. With 11 pumps, something can always go wrong. So it was imperative I made sure they were in good working condition before leaving.
Well…a check valve refused to check, causing me to spend an unexpected hour fiddling with it. That done, I turned to catching and bagging fish to take to the three clubs’ auctions. This took much longer than usual since I was using breathing bags for only the second time. I wasn’t sure how many I could fit in the large box we were taking.
All in all, I’d created a lot of unnecessary stress by trying to do too many things in too little time.
But, by the way, after being moved the tank turned out nice. The photo is of the tank setup after returning from the northeast, but before fish were added.
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