Another new word: Sitow

It means "Self-Inflicted Tale of Woe."

I've shared many of those on these very pages; so many, in fact, that I was forced to invent the new word.

What was the last straw? Well, it happened just five minutes ago, here at work.

I've been living with, and being egregiously annoyed by, this whistling/squeaking noise up in my office ceiling for weeks/months now, but I didn't want to have building maintenance look for it because I've taped over the ceiling air vents. The vents are situated such that they blow ice cold air down the back of my shirt and generally make me cold. I share a vent with the office next door, and the occupant there is always hot. I figured it was easier for me to solve my problem by wearing heavy clothing and covering the vents than it would be for her to find a workaround for being too hot, so the tape seemed to be the most expedient solution. I used clear packing tape so that my DIY modification would escape casual scrutiny by the building managers.

When the squeaking started, I thought maybe the taped vents had caused some blower motor up there to work too hard and wear out, and the resulting squeal was simply its way of protesting. I finally reached my limit today, though, and got to thinking that I ought to have someone come fix it. Prior to doing that, I thought I ought to get up there and remove the evidence, as it were.

That's when it struck me that maybe the whistling sound was actually being caused by the air blowing through the tape that I had placed over the vents.

It was.