The Blog That Care Forgot
One year ago from last Tuesday, a debilitating tempest swept through the gulf coast, leveling and demolishing anything in its path, including my home. My heart still aches at the thought of childhood landmarks being defiled by Mother Nature (and human ingenuity stupidity). Ashes to ashes, rust to rust, one might instinctly say, but it's hard to accept, particularly because everyone's still renewing the city. Sure, many businesses and restaurants are back open, but the sight of debris on every corner and FEMA trailers on people's yards only serve to instill a haunting memory that city life is still askew. Sigh.
That's not to say life is without its lighter moments, though more often than not, dark humor prevails.
Before I go any further, I am ecstatic to say that we are back in the house. Not everything is fully ready yet, but the house is at least habitable with the things we all take for granted: beds with sheets & pillowcases, bathtubs with running hot water, and light switches that work. No more FEMA trailer for us, which means -- you guessed it -- I can no longer call myself white trash. Pity.
Instead, I should call myself a klutz. Why? Read on...
As I helped to fix up the house, I often felt I kept taking two steps forward...and then one step back. One example was when I was measuring the amount of cable I needed to run through the attic for the surround sound speakers. I could find a decent tape measure anywhere around, so I used my mom's clunky one that won't stand up on its own. So I go to measure the distance from the floor to the ceiling, gently hanging the tip of the tape on the living room track lights...and ZAP! A gigantic spark flew out, knocking out all the lights in the room. Checked the circuit breaker, but nothing seemed wrong. Turns out I blew the damn dimmer switch, which we then find out should have had a higher tolerance anyways. The electricians came out to fix it, but not before my mom got in a mouthful about how they should have installed a better switch.
Then there was the incident of installing telephone jacks in the house, where the first jack worked perfectly until I tried to install another in the master bedroom and had to cut off a chunk of rusted telco cable. Whodathunk BellSouth wired our house in a series circuit!?! (FYI: Series Circuit = xmas lights: one light goes out, they ALL go out.) Later I found out that not only did I do everything right, but that originally our house was wired in an unorthodox fashion. So tell me something I don't know. :P
Saving the best for last is my amazing acrobatic act in the attic. We finally received our replacement digital cable box, so after a quick happy dance, I ran and connected it in the house to go test it out, I turn the tv on annnnnd...nada. It kept showing 5:00 and wouldn't let us turn the channel. (This is AFTER our many attempts at activating the box.) A technician couldn't be out there for another week, so I decided to check the wiring in the attic. Yep, all of it was water damaged, just as I had suspected. In the oh-so infamous words of Tim the Tool Man Taylor, "...So I rewired it!" A brand new cable wire did the trick, and HBO on Demand was ours for the taking. Then I figured, while I was already up in the attic, why not wire the rest of the house? I bought some shiny, new, gold-plated cable and began running it throughout the house, replacing the damaged wires. I was down to the last cable, which was to go to my mom's room -- the master bedroom. She didn't have a wall jack or anything to run it through, so I meticulously began to unravel the wire to run it towards her room. Unfortunately, I paid more attention to the cable than my footing. The floorboard suddenly tilted under my foot and my left foot goes RIGHT THROUGH THE CEILING. Thank goodness I had been holding onto a nearby beam the entire time I was up there; otherwise I would have been bang-splat-pancake. Both my mom and sister rushed in to see if I was okay, thinking I fell off the attic ladder. Ah, if only, then my ego would have been saved.
BTW, I may be too embarrassed to post a picture of it, but I'm not embarrassed enough to link to it. :D
Later I went up to my mom and explained how I felt I kept taking two steps forward and one step back. She asked why, so I explained, "Well, let's see...I blew out a dimmer, I killed the house line, and to top it off, I left a big ol' crater in the ceiling." She tells me that first of all, she can't get angry at me for all the work I've been doing, because she knows I'm trying to do something for everyone's benefit. Then she reminded me that, along with installing and rewiring the entertainment center, I had been home to let in all the contractors and technicians and furniture movers, something that would have otherwise set her back due to rescheduling around her work hours. I didn't feel so bad after that. :)
Though I wanted to spend more time with my family, especially with my puppy who's almost healed from his surgery, I had to fly back into Cali on Wed, and since then I've been busy busy busy getting ready for the fall semester and playing catch-up with my web clients and Hillel junk. Tonight I'll finally have a chance to read everyone's blogs from this past week or two; don't think I forgot about y'all!
Oh, and in case you were wondering, I ran the speaker wire under the rug in the living room. The ceiling may have been fixed, but I've had my fill of the attic for a while. :P
That's not to say life is without its lighter moments, though more often than not, dark humor prevails.
Before I go any further, I am ecstatic to say that we are back in the house. Not everything is fully ready yet, but the house is at least habitable with the things we all take for granted: beds with sheets & pillowcases, bathtubs with running hot water, and light switches that work. No more FEMA trailer for us, which means -- you guessed it -- I can no longer call myself white trash. Pity.
Instead, I should call myself a klutz. Why? Read on...
As I helped to fix up the house, I often felt I kept taking two steps forward...and then one step back. One example was when I was measuring the amount of cable I needed to run through the attic for the surround sound speakers. I could find a decent tape measure anywhere around, so I used my mom's clunky one that won't stand up on its own. So I go to measure the distance from the floor to the ceiling, gently hanging the tip of the tape on the living room track lights...and ZAP! A gigantic spark flew out, knocking out all the lights in the room. Checked the circuit breaker, but nothing seemed wrong. Turns out I blew the damn dimmer switch, which we then find out should have had a higher tolerance anyways. The electricians came out to fix it, but not before my mom got in a mouthful about how they should have installed a better switch.
Then there was the incident of installing telephone jacks in the house, where the first jack worked perfectly until I tried to install another in the master bedroom and had to cut off a chunk of rusted telco cable. Whodathunk BellSouth wired our house in a series circuit!?! (FYI: Series Circuit = xmas lights: one light goes out, they ALL go out.) Later I found out that not only did I do everything right, but that originally our house was wired in an unorthodox fashion. So tell me something I don't know. :P
Saving the best for last is my amazing acrobatic act in the attic. We finally received our replacement digital cable box, so after a quick happy dance, I ran and connected it in the house to go test it out, I turn the tv on annnnnd...nada. It kept showing 5:00 and wouldn't let us turn the channel. (This is AFTER our many attempts at activating the box.) A technician couldn't be out there for another week, so I decided to check the wiring in the attic. Yep, all of it was water damaged, just as I had suspected. In the oh-so infamous words of Tim the Tool Man Taylor, "...So I rewired it!" A brand new cable wire did the trick, and HBO on Demand was ours for the taking. Then I figured, while I was already up in the attic, why not wire the rest of the house? I bought some shiny, new, gold-plated cable and began running it throughout the house, replacing the damaged wires. I was down to the last cable, which was to go to my mom's room -- the master bedroom. She didn't have a wall jack or anything to run it through, so I meticulously began to unravel the wire to run it towards her room. Unfortunately, I paid more attention to the cable than my footing. The floorboard suddenly tilted under my foot and my left foot goes RIGHT THROUGH THE CEILING. Thank goodness I had been holding onto a nearby beam the entire time I was up there; otherwise I would have been bang-splat-pancake. Both my mom and sister rushed in to see if I was okay, thinking I fell off the attic ladder. Ah, if only, then my ego would have been saved.
BTW, I may be too embarrassed to post a picture of it, but I'm not embarrassed enough to link to it. :D
Later I went up to my mom and explained how I felt I kept taking two steps forward and one step back. She asked why, so I explained, "Well, let's see...I blew out a dimmer, I killed the house line, and to top it off, I left a big ol' crater in the ceiling." She tells me that first of all, she can't get angry at me for all the work I've been doing, because she knows I'm trying to do something for everyone's benefit. Then she reminded me that, along with installing and rewiring the entertainment center, I had been home to let in all the contractors and technicians and furniture movers, something that would have otherwise set her back due to rescheduling around her work hours. I didn't feel so bad after that. :)
Though I wanted to spend more time with my family, especially with my puppy who's almost healed from his surgery, I had to fly back into Cali on Wed, and since then I've been busy busy busy getting ready for the fall semester and playing catch-up with my web clients and Hillel junk. Tonight I'll finally have a chance to read everyone's blogs from this past week or two; don't think I forgot about y'all!
Oh, and in case you were wondering, I ran the speaker wire under the rug in the living room. The ceiling may have been fixed, but I've had my fill of the attic for a while. :P