Whenever Joe's Out of Town...

That's my Murphy's Law. Crap happens when Joe's out of town.

It started in our first house in Atlanta, when the air conditioner compressor thingamajig decided to spurt water everywhere in the basemenet. That was the first frantic "whythefrickaren'tyouherewhereyoubelong" call was made.

You see, my dearest husband travels. A lot. And if it's going to snow 12+ inches? He'll be out of town. Funny how it works that way. Here's the last 48-or-so-hours in a quasi-nutshell:

- Sunday. Lots of rain. Boy, that foundation work we had done really does the trick. Bone dry basement.
- Sunday night. Still raining. Little bit of water in the basement. Not from the usual suspect (bad drainage - hence the foundation and drainage work of 2005), but from the dirt floor. Water table rising. Just a little water, though.
- Monday morning. Check basement. Looks a bit higher, but still well within our "flood range" that we'd experienced pre-2005.
- Monday afternoon. Joe left for Cleveland.
- Monday night. Large bags of crap, insulation, and pieces of wood (but no dead animals, Amy) floating in the Weismann Underground Lake. Heater making funky noise (since, heh, it's flooded). Turn off emergency switches and call Joe. Joe talks Beth down from mental ledge. Joe describes where sump pump is. Sump pump has no hoses. No nothing. How the heck to I put it together? Damn you for leaving this goddamn ladder on the stairwell. Putting on these way too big wading boots to go down into 6-7 inches of muckitymuck and scream about Joe not being around whenever crap like this happens. Forget it. I give up. Everything's under water. Nothing to do now. Going upstairs.
- Later Monday night. Joe calls and says friend/coworker Roy is coming by. Whatever. Roy doesn't make up for Joe not being here. Grrrrrr. Now have to actually put a bra back on.
- Roy comes by, poor thing - with a bad cold, carrying some hoses from his pool. He engineers some kind of system with duct tape and gets the sump pump purring. Water streaming out the window. Roy hangs out a bit, the water goes down about an inch, then Roy goes home after I hug him 3 or 4 times.
- I turn off sump pump when it starts sucking too much air - water gone down by about 4-5 inches now. Yay! Call Joe, who's worried sick about crazy wife.
- Sleep upstairs with kitties in rooms that have heat not attached to furnace. Thank goodness for this Hudson Valley version of the Winchester Mystery House.
- Had toasty night of restless sleep and quick-as-a-wink shower that ended up not being too cold.
- Tuesday afternoon. Came home, saw basement had drained some more - actually dry spots now. Called Joe to talk me through relighting water heater pilot. Tried many, many times with knees in muck, phone on ledge, flashlight propped up, and fingers crossed that there would be no kablooey. No kablooey. No pilot lighting, either. Will try tomorrow after cleaning crud from pilot light doohickey. If not successful, then calling the service folks.

Joe's out of town for another ten days. I will not jinx myself, but I don't want to think of what else can happen.

ON TO HAPPY THOUGHTS...

A big THANK YOU to the Pomerance Family, my big brother, and Miss Lorena for your generous donations to the MS ride! I'm actually over my goal now. This is *such* a motivator to not disappoint my sponsors!

And, before I bid you good night, I leave you with another happy thought...

BEER SOCKS!!!

Just about 10 more days before TAP-NY, and all I have left is the top ribbing. Woohoo! Don't pay attention to the crappy heals, though. Not crazy about that method. At all.

I have electricity, heating sources, TV, booze, cats, and knitting. It's all good...

Thanks for your support!