So I think it is fair to say that I have been doing a lot of self-medicating lately.
Which is code for drinking WAY too much.
Its the funny thing about a break-up. Each one has its own little quirks and not-healthy behaviours. Clearly, I have gone with the find the bottom of the bottle and live there theory. I think maybe it is time to stop and give ye olde liver a break.
I know, I know -- even a Smith liver needs a time-out every now and again. Hard to believe, but it is true.
Of course, I had no sooner decided that maybe, just maybe I needed to take this time off when low and behold I had the un-avoidable (inevitable/needed) run in with Joe.
Woo Hoo.
Timing was perfect as those things tend be.
So we talked. And yeah - its done.
There are a lot more details on that one, but this is one conversation I think I will be keeping out of the blog. Suffice it to say -
Done and done.
Said what I wanted, made my peace and with a slightly heavy heart, am moving on. Then followed it with an afternoon of drinking that I chalked up to the Drake Relays.
Any excuse I suppose.
So, like I said. Detox time.
Of course, I no sooner type that line than a co-worker tells me about some free drink night on Thursday that we all HAVE to go to.
No promises.
On a totally unrelated front -
I have moved my house energy out of doors. Basement is almost recovered from the flood. Now, we have commenced operation how-many-leaves-can-one-yard-REALLY-have-and-when-do-you-just-give-up?
The answer is somewhere around 20 yard bags.
Yes.
Twenty.
20 - 30 gallon bags of leaves and sticks.
And frankly, not sure that you can tell the difference.
Yard goodness. Its been so long.
So, if anyone gets bored ANY time in say the next 4 months and wants something to do on a Saturday/Sunday -- give me a buzz. Fairly sure we can come up with a few things for you!!
Ok- I am out. Putting out fires at work and just needed a small break.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Noah & His Ark -- also known as a redhead and her shop-vac
So-
For those of you that do not spend hours perusing either weather.com or watching the latest, greatest SUPER-MEGA-UBER-MINE-IS-BETTER-THAN-YOURS Doppler radar, it has been raining here in Des Moines.
For three days
A lot.
Rain
Rain
Rain.
So, as mentioned in the previous post -- today even -- I moved into a house recently.
A older house. Full of charm and character, and as fate would have it a rather blocked main line between said charming house and the city drainage system.
So Monday night (Tuesday? All the days are running together), I went down to check the basement.
Side note: basement is unfinished and only has the kitty bathroom and some storage in it.
Noticed a little bit of water. Nothing major, so clean up and go along with my night.
fast forward to yesterday morning
wait, is that possible?? Never mind.
Yesterday morning, as I was leaving for work, I thought to myself:
"Self, I should go check the basement as it rained all night"
Well, a few steps down and the reality of my world hit me like a 10 foot wave at high tide.
My basement -- all roughly 1000 sq. feet of it -- was covered in about 2-3" of water.
AWESOME.
Quite a site to behold before I have had coffee.
My immediate thought was -- "I have pissed someone in the cosmos off"
And then one of my cats came dashing down the steps, ran through the water and decided it was a cool toy -- you could SPLASH it.
For the record, never seen a cat do that. But there she was -- Boris playing in the water.
And yes, it was clean water. Don't even want to think about the other option.
Now keep in mind a few things:
A. It was STILL raining outside.
2. I was wearing dress clothes.
III. I had a TON of meetings all morning.
Four. I am not the owner of any giant suction devices that could somehow rid my basement of all the aforementioned water.
So, I decided on a course of action. I called the landlord, left a VM, got in my car, got my coffee went to work and decided that over lunch (after my many important meetings) I would go to Lowe's or whatever the mega-home store is down the street from the office, buy a shop-vac and commence in the cleaning.
So fast forward to noon. Buy shop-vac and shop-vac accessories. Easy how quickly THAT adds up.
Head home.
Change clothes
And begin.
I found out something very quickly. When you have that much water, filling a 16 gallon shop-vac takes about a minute and a half. Carrying said shop-vac up the stairs -- like 10 minutes and that was with half of it spilling all over me.
Good times.
Good, shop-vac times.
So, plan B.
Position shop-vac at top of stairs. Find duct tape. Secure extension tube to end of shop-vac.
Suck out water.
This worked. So there I was, sitting on my steps, emptying the damn thing roughly every 2 minutes and lost count of how many I had filled somewhere after 18.
All the while, not noticing ANY change in the water levels in the basement.
Oh yeah - I did move the litter boxes upstairs to avoid any accidents.
So, its like 5PM - I have been at this for several hours. Still haven't heard from the landlady. Back is getting tired. Hands are sore and not a single part of me is dry.
Oh, and its still raining.
Then I get a message from a friend who is in a similar position. Except he has carpet.
Now THAT sucks.
And the landlord calls. Finally.
So she comes over. Takes one look and is like, if you hadn't been working all day, it would kinda be funny.
Yeah. Freakin' hysterical. My sides hurt from laughing so hard.
She then says, no, not a leak. It has to be the main drain that is backed up. I will call my guy.
So, at that point, I am wet, cold and beat up. And I stop with the shop-vac
STEP AWAY FROM THE SHOP-VAC
Cue the bottle of wine.
Check.
So, I made dinner, had some wine, hung out with Martine. Watched the most ridiculous American Idol elimination show EVER and finally around 7:30ish, knock on the door.
The sewer/plumber guy.
Goes down to the basement, takes one look around, says "Yep, seen about 5 houses with this tonight."
Goes out to his truck, grabs a PLUNGER, plunges the drain, does something else in the other room and low and behold, just like you were in the tub, you can see the swirling vortex of water draining down.
He then comments on the tattoo on my foot -- he liked it -- tells me it will need to drain overnight, but that should take care of it and left.
10 minutes from start to finish.
10 minutes.
I spent 4.5 hours with the damn shop-vac lifting, dumping, getting wet and it took him 10 minutes.
I am in the wrong industry.
Or I need a guy around the house. But that is another entry.
So this morning, most of the water was gone, the dove came back with the olive branch indicating land was nearby and now I just have to clean up and throw away all the boxes that are totally trashed.
And I am sore. Massage on Monday totally went to waste.
So -- lets hope no more rain.
And if not, well I have a $4 plunger and a $200 shop-vac. I am all set.
For those of you that do not spend hours perusing either weather.com or watching the latest, greatest SUPER-MEGA-UBER-MINE-IS-BETTER-THAN-YOURS Doppler radar, it has been raining here in Des Moines.
For three days
A lot.
Rain
Rain
Rain.
So, as mentioned in the previous post -- today even -- I moved into a house recently.
A older house. Full of charm and character, and as fate would have it a rather blocked main line between said charming house and the city drainage system.
So Monday night (Tuesday? All the days are running together), I went down to check the basement.
Side note: basement is unfinished and only has the kitty bathroom and some storage in it.
Noticed a little bit of water. Nothing major, so clean up and go along with my night.
fast forward to yesterday morning
wait, is that possible?? Never mind.
Yesterday morning, as I was leaving for work, I thought to myself:
"Self, I should go check the basement as it rained all night"
Well, a few steps down and the reality of my world hit me like a 10 foot wave at high tide.
My basement -- all roughly 1000 sq. feet of it -- was covered in about 2-3" of water.
AWESOME.
Quite a site to behold before I have had coffee.
My immediate thought was -- "I have pissed someone in the cosmos off"
And then one of my cats came dashing down the steps, ran through the water and decided it was a cool toy -- you could SPLASH it.
For the record, never seen a cat do that. But there she was -- Boris playing in the water.
And yes, it was clean water. Don't even want to think about the other option.
Now keep in mind a few things:
A. It was STILL raining outside.
2. I was wearing dress clothes.
III. I had a TON of meetings all morning.
Four. I am not the owner of any giant suction devices that could somehow rid my basement of all the aforementioned water.
So, I decided on a course of action. I called the landlord, left a VM, got in my car, got my coffee went to work and decided that over lunch (after my many important meetings) I would go to Lowe's or whatever the mega-home store is down the street from the office, buy a shop-vac and commence in the cleaning.
So fast forward to noon. Buy shop-vac and shop-vac accessories. Easy how quickly THAT adds up.
Head home.
Change clothes
And begin.
I found out something very quickly. When you have that much water, filling a 16 gallon shop-vac takes about a minute and a half. Carrying said shop-vac up the stairs -- like 10 minutes and that was with half of it spilling all over me.
Good times.
Good, shop-vac times.
So, plan B.
Position shop-vac at top of stairs. Find duct tape. Secure extension tube to end of shop-vac.
Suck out water.
This worked. So there I was, sitting on my steps, emptying the damn thing roughly every 2 minutes and lost count of how many I had filled somewhere after 18.
All the while, not noticing ANY change in the water levels in the basement.
Oh yeah - I did move the litter boxes upstairs to avoid any accidents.
So, its like 5PM - I have been at this for several hours. Still haven't heard from the landlady. Back is getting tired. Hands are sore and not a single part of me is dry.
Oh, and its still raining.
Then I get a message from a friend who is in a similar position. Except he has carpet.
Now THAT sucks.
And the landlord calls. Finally.
So she comes over. Takes one look and is like, if you hadn't been working all day, it would kinda be funny.
Yeah. Freakin' hysterical. My sides hurt from laughing so hard.
She then says, no, not a leak. It has to be the main drain that is backed up. I will call my guy.
So, at that point, I am wet, cold and beat up. And I stop with the shop-vac
STEP AWAY FROM THE SHOP-VAC
Cue the bottle of wine.
Check.
So, I made dinner, had some wine, hung out with Martine. Watched the most ridiculous American Idol elimination show EVER and finally around 7:30ish, knock on the door.
The sewer/plumber guy.
Goes down to the basement, takes one look around, says "Yep, seen about 5 houses with this tonight."
Goes out to his truck, grabs a PLUNGER, plunges the drain, does something else in the other room and low and behold, just like you were in the tub, you can see the swirling vortex of water draining down.
He then comments on the tattoo on my foot -- he liked it -- tells me it will need to drain overnight, but that should take care of it and left.
10 minutes from start to finish.
10 minutes.
I spent 4.5 hours with the damn shop-vac lifting, dumping, getting wet and it took him 10 minutes.
I am in the wrong industry.
Or I need a guy around the house. But that is another entry.
So this morning, most of the water was gone, the dove came back with the olive branch indicating land was nearby and now I just have to clean up and throw away all the boxes that are totally trashed.
And I am sore. Massage on Monday totally went to waste.
So -- lets hope no more rain.
And if not, well I have a $4 plunger and a $200 shop-vac. I am all set.
What? I have a blog?
Psst.
Psst. Is anyone there?
Hello?!?!!? She shouts into the great abyss that is the intertron...
I somehow seriously doubt that anyone still reads this. Although I have been poked a few times in the last few weeks to get my ass in gear and start keeping this thing current.
**Poke, Poke**
Ok. So here I am. Like 6 months since my last post.
And oh how things have changed. And yet, stayed the same.
In the Change Department:
New Job - in late January.
New House - in late February
New Haircut -- does that really count? I cut my hair all the time.
Adam & Jess - now married.
Brother - back in Iraq. Woo hoo.
In the Same Department:
Work - still stressful, just in a new way.
Personal life - single again.
Mom - still sick -- but doing pretty good. So, don't get too worried on that one.
I am sure both lists could be expanded quite a bit. Its the detail that is evading me at the moment.
So for the changes.
New job. Good move. It was tough to leave Lightedge again. Again -- I think they already have a pool started to see when I will be going back. Hah! No - this time Meghan has moved on. Went to a company that is larger (400+) and has a much more structured project management office. Also got a nice raise to go with it. And no matter what they say, that never hurts. Of course, I switched industries, so I spent the first month just trying to figure out what in the hell people were actually talking about.
New House. Equally good move. I had just HAD it with apartment living. The noise, the lack of space, the noise, the lack of space. You get the drift. So, I started looking for houses/duplexes. Through a series of events I managed to find the one I am in now. Its sorta weird in that it is rent-to-own, but given the events of the last 48 hours I am glad I still have a landlord. At least now. And there will more than likely be a post regarding the last 48 hours, so stay tuned. Two posts in one day MIGHT just sent you all into shock, but it is a risk I am willing to take.
Anyhoo -- house is good. Lots of space. Yard. Garage. The whole she-bang. Of course, now I have started Operation BUY LOTS OF FURNITURE. Its a work in progress.
Adam & Jess. Officially became the Whitney's last Saturday. Congrats to them. Great time was had by all. Wishing them nothing but the best.
And Patrick. Yep. Back in Iraq. Not sure how much more I can say about that.
In the same column:
Yes, yes and yes.
I do feel that I owe more explanation on the same category, but going to let that one sit for the time being. Not feeling quite as snarky as I need to be for that group of explanations.
And so I am out. Stay tuned for the fable of Noah and his Ark. Its a good one. I promise.
Out.
Oh -
Now Playing: Let's Go Crazy
Prince
Psst. Is anyone there?
Hello?!?!!? She shouts into the great abyss that is the intertron...
I somehow seriously doubt that anyone still reads this. Although I have been poked a few times in the last few weeks to get my ass in gear and start keeping this thing current.
**Poke, Poke**
Ok. So here I am. Like 6 months since my last post.
And oh how things have changed. And yet, stayed the same.
In the Change Department:
New Job - in late January.
New House - in late February
New Haircut -- does that really count? I cut my hair all the time.
Adam & Jess - now married.
Brother - back in Iraq. Woo hoo.
In the Same Department:
Work - still stressful, just in a new way.
Personal life - single again.
Mom - still sick -- but doing pretty good. So, don't get too worried on that one.
I am sure both lists could be expanded quite a bit. Its the detail that is evading me at the moment.
So for the changes.
New job. Good move. It was tough to leave Lightedge again. Again -- I think they already have a pool started to see when I will be going back. Hah! No - this time Meghan has moved on. Went to a company that is larger (400+) and has a much more structured project management office. Also got a nice raise to go with it. And no matter what they say, that never hurts. Of course, I switched industries, so I spent the first month just trying to figure out what in the hell people were actually talking about.
New House. Equally good move. I had just HAD it with apartment living. The noise, the lack of space, the noise, the lack of space. You get the drift. So, I started looking for houses/duplexes. Through a series of events I managed to find the one I am in now. Its sorta weird in that it is rent-to-own, but given the events of the last 48 hours I am glad I still have a landlord. At least now. And there will more than likely be a post regarding the last 48 hours, so stay tuned. Two posts in one day MIGHT just sent you all into shock, but it is a risk I am willing to take.
Anyhoo -- house is good. Lots of space. Yard. Garage. The whole she-bang. Of course, now I have started Operation BUY LOTS OF FURNITURE. Its a work in progress.
Adam & Jess. Officially became the Whitney's last Saturday. Congrats to them. Great time was had by all. Wishing them nothing but the best.
And Patrick. Yep. Back in Iraq. Not sure how much more I can say about that.
In the same column:
Yes, yes and yes.
I do feel that I owe more explanation on the same category, but going to let that one sit for the time being. Not feeling quite as snarky as I need to be for that group of explanations.
And so I am out. Stay tuned for the fable of Noah and his Ark. Its a good one. I promise.
Out.
Oh -
Now Playing: Let's Go Crazy
Prince
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)