Here's the poop...oh wait
Hey All,
I haven't posted since October. It got busy.
The poop on us lately is, well, poop! Since December 27, we've had 4 or 5 sewer backups. Because of the way our house is built, the sewer backs up into the laundry room sink and up the drainage hose for the washing machine. The first time, it overflowed the sink and spilled disgustingness over the washer and all over the floor in a huge nasty puddle downhill to the sump pump and then, all over the lawn. We called insurance and they came and industrial-cleaned this. Then it happened again. Major cleaning again. This also involved, throwing away our washer and dryer, cutting 4 feet of drywall out of the laundry room, and chucking a whole bunch of other stuff as well: carpets, shoes, mops, etc. Anything touched by sewage has to be thrown away or industrial cleaned. We had the city come and roto-root out the main drain - three times. Over the weekend, only days after we installed $2000 worth of new washer and dryer, it happened again - twice. This time, insurance WON'T cover it, so it was me with my rubber gloves, mop and bucket of bleach. So disgusting.
Friday, we got the drain scoped. For the low, low price of $225, you too can get a movie of the inside of your drain! Anyway, our beautiful 100-year-old maple tree is eating our pipes. It shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was. It turns out that the city is planning to dig up our street this summer anyway. If they do, we can have them dig up the sewer piper to our house for much cheaper than it would cost otherwise, but it's still going to be about $3000+. And we have to make it for another couple of months. We've found some horribly caustic chemicals that are supposed to kill the tree roots and we're praying this will work and we can limp along until the spring. Sorry environment! This means that the laundry room can't be fixed until the front lawn is dug up. More mess and destruction in the future. Ugh.
In the meantime, GMinor's anxiety has skyrocketed. She's worried about everything now, even things she has previously enjoyed - even Christmas and our trip to Great Wolf Lodge weren't enough to shake this. We've pulled her out of her gifted program for the moment and she's in counselling to try and get this under control. She's having trouble sleeping, nightmares almost every night, she's not eating much, she cried often and we've had her in emergency a couple of times with chest pains and stomach pains, which all seem to be anxiety-related. She is improving now, but slowly, slowly. And having the basement in upheaval hasn't helped at all. We're still hopeful about her progress, but it's been a really challenging couple of months.
Work is finally picking up for me with an influx of high-level science projects. Although I have no science background at all, it seems that I can Google and Wiki my way through grade 12 chemistry and biology. Who knew? Since chem and bio editors and writers at this level are few and far between, work is flowing and no one is complaining about my utter lack of knowledge. In fact, they have given me more. It's somewhat cheering that amid the terror of being confronted by material that makes no sense to me at all, I am somehow able to muddle through it enough to get paid. (Caution, geek reference: All my points are in fast talk, I guess.)
GMajor is still plugging away at his bookstore day job. They haven't fired him yet, but he's on his last warning. If he's even 30 seconds late *ever again*, he's done. In a way, it's been kind of freeing. He now realizes that he can be insubordinate at least a couple of times for free, he can swear a few times, and be as obnoxious as he likes at least a couple of times, so he might as well use up all those extra warnings. The downside is that GMinor's counselling is paid by GMajor's bookstore benefit package and there aren't a lot of other options available. But we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.
His writing career is somewhat Sisyphean, but it is moving forward. Or more like the trials of Hercules? Anyway, nothing more has been sold since Franklin, but there are lots of people reading his stuff, so it's still promising. If he can take a break from mopping out the basement and write some new stuff, that would work better. He's finished another pilot over Christmas that is making the rounds, so fingers crossed that it will catch the eye of some producers and they'll send that truckload of money over soon. Good news would be so welcome right now!
Other than that, we are all basically well. Cats are good, Rosie just had her 2nd birthday. We made her doggie cupcakes and had a doggie party for her. So cute!
I haven't posted since October. It got busy.
The poop on us lately is, well, poop! Since December 27, we've had 4 or 5 sewer backups. Because of the way our house is built, the sewer backs up into the laundry room sink and up the drainage hose for the washing machine. The first time, it overflowed the sink and spilled disgustingness over the washer and all over the floor in a huge nasty puddle downhill to the sump pump and then, all over the lawn. We called insurance and they came and industrial-cleaned this. Then it happened again. Major cleaning again. This also involved, throwing away our washer and dryer, cutting 4 feet of drywall out of the laundry room, and chucking a whole bunch of other stuff as well: carpets, shoes, mops, etc. Anything touched by sewage has to be thrown away or industrial cleaned. We had the city come and roto-root out the main drain - three times. Over the weekend, only days after we installed $2000 worth of new washer and dryer, it happened again - twice. This time, insurance WON'T cover it, so it was me with my rubber gloves, mop and bucket of bleach. So disgusting.
Friday, we got the drain scoped. For the low, low price of $225, you too can get a movie of the inside of your drain! Anyway, our beautiful 100-year-old maple tree is eating our pipes. It shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was. It turns out that the city is planning to dig up our street this summer anyway. If they do, we can have them dig up the sewer piper to our house for much cheaper than it would cost otherwise, but it's still going to be about $3000+. And we have to make it for another couple of months. We've found some horribly caustic chemicals that are supposed to kill the tree roots and we're praying this will work and we can limp along until the spring. Sorry environment! This means that the laundry room can't be fixed until the front lawn is dug up. More mess and destruction in the future. Ugh.
In the meantime, GMinor's anxiety has skyrocketed. She's worried about everything now, even things she has previously enjoyed - even Christmas and our trip to Great Wolf Lodge weren't enough to shake this. We've pulled her out of her gifted program for the moment and she's in counselling to try and get this under control. She's having trouble sleeping, nightmares almost every night, she's not eating much, she cried often and we've had her in emergency a couple of times with chest pains and stomach pains, which all seem to be anxiety-related. She is improving now, but slowly, slowly. And having the basement in upheaval hasn't helped at all. We're still hopeful about her progress, but it's been a really challenging couple of months.
Work is finally picking up for me with an influx of high-level science projects. Although I have no science background at all, it seems that I can Google and Wiki my way through grade 12 chemistry and biology. Who knew? Since chem and bio editors and writers at this level are few and far between, work is flowing and no one is complaining about my utter lack of knowledge. In fact, they have given me more. It's somewhat cheering that amid the terror of being confronted by material that makes no sense to me at all, I am somehow able to muddle through it enough to get paid. (Caution, geek reference: All my points are in fast talk, I guess.)
GMajor is still plugging away at his bookstore day job. They haven't fired him yet, but he's on his last warning. If he's even 30 seconds late *ever again*, he's done. In a way, it's been kind of freeing. He now realizes that he can be insubordinate at least a couple of times for free, he can swear a few times, and be as obnoxious as he likes at least a couple of times, so he might as well use up all those extra warnings. The downside is that GMinor's counselling is paid by GMajor's bookstore benefit package and there aren't a lot of other options available. But we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.
His writing career is somewhat Sisyphean, but it is moving forward. Or more like the trials of Hercules? Anyway, nothing more has been sold since Franklin, but there are lots of people reading his stuff, so it's still promising. If he can take a break from mopping out the basement and write some new stuff, that would work better. He's finished another pilot over Christmas that is making the rounds, so fingers crossed that it will catch the eye of some producers and they'll send that truckload of money over soon. Good news would be so welcome right now!
Other than that, we are all basically well. Cats are good, Rosie just had her 2nd birthday. We made her doggie cupcakes and had a doggie party for her. So cute!