Super Post
In my head this seems like a lot of stuff, so this entry may get super long. Have you ever seen the 'Chain of Screaming' episode of How I Met Your Mother? The one where Marshall cries?
I was like that yesterday. I just felt the weight of everything all at once and i just wanted to cry. Luckily by the time everyone left and I was able to do so I was to tired to do anything but pass out.
So a rundown? Photos? CJ Article?
Yesterday morning I got woke up by hail on the air conditioning unit in my room. Went downstairs and sat with Kris, played with the puppy and watched something on tv. Puppy went downstairs, which is a no-no. I called him back up, but he went down again, Kris says she heard water but assumed I was doing laundry, but she went down after him and I heard her holler something like 'oh no' or 'daniel!' and i went down after her.
Most of the basement was sitting in about 3 inches of water and it was spreading across the floor. One of the drain pipes had backed up and was spewing water everywhere. This water was coming from outside, because there was so much water that it didn't have anywhere to go but back through the drain pipes. There was so much water our sump pump couldn't do it's job and passed out. So even more water collected in the basement. We set to work quickly moving important boxes out of the path of water. But it wouldn't stop so we had to keep going.
At some point in the morning, I went out to smoke my first cigarette of the day, damn the rain, and discovered that the water level outside had risen above my tires. And the side closest to me was sitting a few extra inches off the ground because I parked ON the curb. I don't freak out, I always assume the best outcome. I didn't think about the water in my car, or that it might be completely out of commission. But as I'm standing there, taking pictures for facebook and twitpic, a truck comes down the street, pushing a giant wave of water in front of it.
My car lifts off the ground and floats up into the yard. A few minutes later a larger truck with more axels comes the other direction. Again my car is lifted off the ground and further into the yard. I'm still not super upset. I'm freaking out enough to laugh at the situation and to wonder if I had noticed it earlier if I would have had time to move it, or if I even would have. I mean how do you know you are going to get 8.88 inches of rain in an hour, or that the water table in your area is almost 2 feet above the road, so that all the rain settles right THERE!?
So I quit thinking about it and concentrated on helping Kris, and doing lots of manual labor since she is still in pain from the car accident, and on the phone trying to figure out what to do and getting nowhere.
Eventually her dad showed up, shoved some cloths into the drain and effectively got the water to stop gushing into the basement. He had stopped to purchase an extra pump, a shop vac and something else on the way too, so that ended up being super helpful.
He was great in the fact that he really worked and kinda took charge, which was good for me because I don't know what to do. Kris and I got what was important and were content to just let the water do it's thing until it stopped and we could get down there to start cleaning. After I failed to break up a father daughter fight, the men managed to get a good chunk of stuff out of the basement, tossing anything even remotely salvagable into garbage bags and piling up soaking wet cardboard outside.
Kris's mother showed up at some point and I think there was another scuffle because everyone wanted to do things a different way. I ended up running away and smoking another cigarette because I had reached a point of agitation where it was just piling up so quick i was going to scream or something.
Chris's parents showed up soon after and I was thankful for some calm parental units. I still can't figure out why their parents are so different since they have a bit of the same military/military-like background.
it took us about 12 hours from the time of discovery to get the basement to a state that we could all calm down. Chris's mom, was something else though, and kept looking for things to do.
Appliances were purchased to start airborne moisture removal, pizza was had for dinner at 10, parentals left shortly after, bedtime around 11. Pizza and bed should never happen that closely together.
Car news? After the flash flooding rains, I took some pictures of my car to see the water level inside. I went back to the door for something and then turned around and found that my windows had rolled down and my trunk had popped open. ugh. I saved the last two packs of smokes that were floating, because I am an addict.
Chris's dad cleared the drains in the street, and we tried to start my car, no go, and tried to put it in nuetral. I couldn't do it. At some point I thought to go out and retrieve my papers from the glovebox. ugh. I read through a swollen, soggy manual and discovered my throught process was correct that I could use the key near the gear shift and put it into gear, I just had to pop off a cap to get to the key point. It took me, both of the fathers and a neighbor guy, to push the car up into the driveway while Chris's mom steered. We covered it with a tarp to keep out additional rain. I was worried about calling my insurance company to see what could be done because I missed my payment on Friday, and had no way to pay it. But I got an email saying I had until the 19th, so I called. Only, I found out that my coverage, just barely better than state minimum doesn't cover flood or water damage. so, big whoop.
So that was my yesterday. Add to that my other stress points - money, the lack of store/job, bills, general useless feelings and I'm near a boiling point.
I am trying my best not to let this show because Kris has had this whole thing a bit worse than me. Chris left for Wisconsin the same weekend I moved in, and it has been one thing after another. Car Accident, Medical problems, totaled car, rental car, flooding, and being out of work due to the medical stuff. So she has no real money coming in at the moment, and part of that income is my rent, which I can't pay because I don't have a paying gig yet. And I'm worried that when that does finally get going, I'm not going to have a way to get to work.
I just want to rewind about a month, but every time I think about that I see no way to have done anything any differently. So I'm stuck.
I was like that yesterday. I just felt the weight of everything all at once and i just wanted to cry. Luckily by the time everyone left and I was able to do so I was to tired to do anything but pass out.
So a rundown? Photos? CJ Article?
Yesterday morning I got woke up by hail on the air conditioning unit in my room. Went downstairs and sat with Kris, played with the puppy and watched something on tv. Puppy went downstairs, which is a no-no. I called him back up, but he went down again, Kris says she heard water but assumed I was doing laundry, but she went down after him and I heard her holler something like 'oh no' or 'daniel!' and i went down after her.
Most of the basement was sitting in about 3 inches of water and it was spreading across the floor. One of the drain pipes had backed up and was spewing water everywhere. This water was coming from outside, because there was so much water that it didn't have anywhere to go but back through the drain pipes. There was so much water our sump pump couldn't do it's job and passed out. So even more water collected in the basement. We set to work quickly moving important boxes out of the path of water. But it wouldn't stop so we had to keep going.
At some point in the morning, I went out to smoke my first cigarette of the day, damn the rain, and discovered that the water level outside had risen above my tires. And the side closest to me was sitting a few extra inches off the ground because I parked ON the curb. I don't freak out, I always assume the best outcome. I didn't think about the water in my car, or that it might be completely out of commission. But as I'm standing there, taking pictures for facebook and twitpic, a truck comes down the street, pushing a giant wave of water in front of it.
My car lifts off the ground and floats up into the yard. A few minutes later a larger truck with more axels comes the other direction. Again my car is lifted off the ground and further into the yard. I'm still not super upset. I'm freaking out enough to laugh at the situation and to wonder if I had noticed it earlier if I would have had time to move it, or if I even would have. I mean how do you know you are going to get 8.88 inches of rain in an hour, or that the water table in your area is almost 2 feet above the road, so that all the rain settles right THERE!?
So I quit thinking about it and concentrated on helping Kris, and doing lots of manual labor since she is still in pain from the car accident, and on the phone trying to figure out what to do and getting nowhere.
Eventually her dad showed up, shoved some cloths into the drain and effectively got the water to stop gushing into the basement. He had stopped to purchase an extra pump, a shop vac and something else on the way too, so that ended up being super helpful.
He was great in the fact that he really worked and kinda took charge, which was good for me because I don't know what to do. Kris and I got what was important and were content to just let the water do it's thing until it stopped and we could get down there to start cleaning. After I failed to break up a father daughter fight, the men managed to get a good chunk of stuff out of the basement, tossing anything even remotely salvagable into garbage bags and piling up soaking wet cardboard outside.
Kris's mother showed up at some point and I think there was another scuffle because everyone wanted to do things a different way. I ended up running away and smoking another cigarette because I had reached a point of agitation where it was just piling up so quick i was going to scream or something.
Chris's parents showed up soon after and I was thankful for some calm parental units. I still can't figure out why their parents are so different since they have a bit of the same military/military-like background.
it took us about 12 hours from the time of discovery to get the basement to a state that we could all calm down. Chris's mom, was something else though, and kept looking for things to do.
Appliances were purchased to start airborne moisture removal, pizza was had for dinner at 10, parentals left shortly after, bedtime around 11. Pizza and bed should never happen that closely together.
Car news? After the flash flooding rains, I took some pictures of my car to see the water level inside. I went back to the door for something and then turned around and found that my windows had rolled down and my trunk had popped open. ugh. I saved the last two packs of smokes that were floating, because I am an addict.
Chris's dad cleared the drains in the street, and we tried to start my car, no go, and tried to put it in nuetral. I couldn't do it. At some point I thought to go out and retrieve my papers from the glovebox. ugh. I read through a swollen, soggy manual and discovered my throught process was correct that I could use the key near the gear shift and put it into gear, I just had to pop off a cap to get to the key point. It took me, both of the fathers and a neighbor guy, to push the car up into the driveway while Chris's mom steered. We covered it with a tarp to keep out additional rain. I was worried about calling my insurance company to see what could be done because I missed my payment on Friday, and had no way to pay it. But I got an email saying I had until the 19th, so I called. Only, I found out that my coverage, just barely better than state minimum doesn't cover flood or water damage. so, big whoop.
So that was my yesterday. Add to that my other stress points - money, the lack of store/job, bills, general useless feelings and I'm near a boiling point.
I am trying my best not to let this show because Kris has had this whole thing a bit worse than me. Chris left for Wisconsin the same weekend I moved in, and it has been one thing after another. Car Accident, Medical problems, totaled car, rental car, flooding, and being out of work due to the medical stuff. So she has no real money coming in at the moment, and part of that income is my rent, which I can't pay because I don't have a paying gig yet. And I'm worried that when that does finally get going, I'm not going to have a way to get to work.
I just want to rewind about a month, but every time I think about that I see no way to have done anything any differently. So I'm stuck.