Friday, November 20, 2009

Where is the caution tape when you need it? It should have been around our doors when we arrived home...


And WHERE was this guy when I needed him and had to do all of this alone?...

It was definitely not a pretty smell, but I don't think it went all the way to the city...

(Here is the poem for Wednesday anyway...)
Now I need to tell a story

But it's not one of glory

In fact, it might be a little 'gory'

So I'll keep it short because you won't want to know any "more...y"!





It was a dark and gloomy night, well, no, actually, it was just dark when we got picked up by Mimi at the airport. The good news was that our flight came in real early...the bad news is we ended up late because there was no docking station for our plane so we sat and sat and sat...I was listening really hard but I couldn't hear any of the passengers singing "Zippadee doo dah, zippadee yea, my oh my what a wonderful day" (they must have been whisper singing it!).


Kelly did call to forewarn us while we were still in Arizona, that our septic system had backed up!! Now, it could have been a whole lot worse, but she was doing laundry so up from the downstairs toilet came a bubbling laundry water and gaseous mixture. It spewed water all over for quite awhile before she caught it. She thought it only went out onto the immediate carpet by the bathroom itself so she used the shampooer to suck up the water. This happened twice, as Kelly thought the problem was over and used the dishwasher next.


Upon entering our little 'love nest' I smelled something less than lovely...a combination of the escaping gases from the septic system combined with a moldy smell. So I took the portable heater and a fan and put them by the carpet area in front of the bathroom and left them on for hours. After a day of this, both Michael and I thought of the fact that the water must have also gone into the little storage area under the stairs and to the immediate right of the bathroom...we started pulling things out like crazy. The first soggy bottomed box with photos in it told a sad tale!! There had been so much water in there that it splashed up against and warped the drywall! The trusty sucker upper machine sure came in handy again as did the heater and fan. We seem to have gotten rid of the moldy smell but we now have wavy drywall in there.
This was supposed to have been finished and posted on Wednesday, but that didn't happen and to keep it short and sweet (well, maybe just short), I will give a part two to this saga, hopefully tomorrow.
Ready for a smile or two?


I was helping a buddy of mine, who was an orthopedic surgeon, move to his new office, and using my car to help transport some of his office equipment.

I had decided to position his somewhat fragile display skeleton strapped into the back seat of my car, his bony arm across the back of my seat.

At one traffic light, the stares of the people in the car beside me became quite obvious. I looked across and explained, "I'm delivering him to a doctor's office."

The other driver leaned out of his window. and commented, "I hate to tell you, but I looks like you may be a bit too late!"

************* Two gas company servicemen, a senior training supervisor and a young trainee...
... were out checking meters in a suburban neighborhood. They parked their truck at the end of the alley and worked their way to the other end. At the last house a woman looking out her kitchen window watched the two men as they checked her gas meter.

Finishing the meter check, the senior supervisor challenged his younger co-worker to a foot race down the alley back to the truck to prove that an older guy could outrun a younger one.

As they came running up to the truck, they realized the lady from that last house was huffing and puffing right behind them and about to pass them up. They stopped and asked her what was wrong.

Gasping for breath, she replied, "When I see two gas men running as hard as you two were, I figured I'd better run too!"

************
A woman went into a hardware store to purchase a bale of peat moss.
She gave a personal check in payment and said to the clerk, "I suppose you will want some identification?"

He replied, without hesitation "No ma'am, that won't be necessary."

"How come?" asked the woman.

"Crooks don't buy peat moss." answered the clerk.
************
~~~Heavenly Father, thank You for being able to count and appreciate the blessings of situations and challenges in our lives that could have been so much worse.

21 comments:

  1. Oh Marcy, welcome home and I am so sorry you had to come back to so much clean up....I had a sewer back up once and we had to hire a guy to spray the basement and as far up the wall as the back-up went to prevent any growth of bacteria (it was covered by insurance) I hope everything is okay now, I know what a mess it can be.
    You were so missed Marcy.....:-) Hugs
    How was Arizona?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad you broke this up into 2 parts. (And I hope you're saving the GOOD part for last.)

    Usually it is SO good to get back home, but in this case - not so much.

    Well, out here in the village, we don't smell it. And it is a great relief to have some humor coming at us again.

    (I DO hope things are back to a good normal for you.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. MARCY, YOU WERE SO MISSED!!!

    Sorry for such a surprise on your return!
    I can almost imagine the cleanup job you had, our washer in the basement overflowed once and sucking up all that water and drying out the carpet was bad enough. The smell alone must have been enough to make you almost say a bad word! Things are fixable though...I hope it never happens again. make sure there is no mold growing...but I'm sure you know though that it is a health hazard.

    I loved the gas meter reader joke! Good that you are back to give us a smile Marcy.

    Luv and Smiles,
    Wanda

    ReplyDelete
  4. I loved the prayer, Marcy!

    And I love how you keep your sense of humor and even give us a few jokes!

    You have been SORELY MISSED! It's good to read you again! And good to have you 'home' here in our village right where you belong!

    Lots of love to you, E

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't know what to say. I am rarely speechless. What a horrible mess to come home to. No wonder you aren't feeling well.
    I am so sorry that you had all of that to deal with Marcy. Again I wished that I were there to help. I am very interested in part two as I can't imagine it being much worse!
    I do hope that things are starting to calm down a bit for you. Lots and lots of hugs for you today! Love Di

    ReplyDelete
  6. Marcy....quite an 'unwelcome' home gift...sigh.
    You do keep your spirits up, though,...no matter what happens...and that is encouraging to me.
    I hope that you know that you have been missed...but I know that under these circumstances, Jackie would probably still be somewhere else....groaning about the mess....and here you are....leaving us with a smile. So much like you, Marcy. Thank you....for all you do for me...and for others.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am so sorry you had to deal with such a horrible problem!!! This happened to us once but thankfully, just in our half bath of our very first house. It was a mess to clean but it didn't destroy any of our possessions. I hope you're doing okay!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. A terrible homecoming but, as you said, itcould have been worse. \hey, no it couldn't, not much, the stinky sticky stuff is nasty and in a million years I could never take this punch on the jaw like you have. I would have screamed and wailed and got nowhere fast. To tell us about it and STILL finish with some funnies - you're special and I take my hat off to you big time. Welcome home Marcy!

    love, Angie, xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Even in the midst of the mess...you keep your sense of humor. What a woman!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Welcome home Marcy - you were highly conspicuous by your absence and we missed you.
    Loved the skeleton situation. You could have said, "I've got a bone to pick with you!" or "I found him in the cupboard!" or "He was alright this morning!" LOL
    But what a homecoming experience for you.
    You still managed a smile ~ hugs Eddie

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Marcy

    I'm sorry you had such a mess to clean up when you got home.
    I am always frightened that our freezer will stop working while we are away and we'll come home to rotting meat etc.
    Hope you've got it sorted now,

    Cheers - Joolz

    ReplyDelete
  12. OH DEAR, how awful! Ummm I was walking the tarmac boarding an airplane, my phone rang, I don't usually answer when I am traveling especially ready to board a plane, but...I did, the woman on the other end, a client was crying, the installers were at her home, 14 custom sized shutters were about to be installed in THE WRONG COLOR. She was not the only one crying, because I ended up paying for them...all 7 thousand dollars worth and guess where they are....still sitting in my garage...anyone want some beautiful white shutters?????? now that is something to come home to.... LOL she got the color she wanted...weeks later.

    ReplyDelete
  13. So happy to see you made it home SAFELY! Hope it was a wonderful trip! hugs...and smiles...

    ReplyDelete
  14. glad your back!! sorry about the odor!! i was sitting here at work and randomly busted out laughing about the skeleton. Everybody got quiet. I don't know what they were thinking!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Welcome home, Marcy!!! We all missed you!!!! But I am so sorry that you had a "backup" to contend with when you reached home!!! Simply horrible!!! I'll be praying for an uncomplicated and smooth repair and reordering of everything!!! And now, I must agree with outdoor.mom...your skeleton story made me roar!!!! Too, too funny!!! Love it! Love you!! I'm so glad you're back! ~Janine XO

    ReplyDelete
  16. Welcome home and I am truly sorry about all the damage. Glad you haven't lost your sense of humor through all the turmoil. Hope you and your family have a nice Thanksgiving.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Marcy, so glad you are back, and so sorry about the damage : (

    This is where you can find me now. (((HUGS))) T

    http://mysterri2me2.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi Marci, what a homecoming, but what a beautiful prayer!! Wishing you and your family a blessed Thanksgiving.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh Marcy what a mess to come home to. Maybe you should hire someone to pull everything out of the basement to make sure you got it all up and dry. Our basement flooded one year, clean water thank goodness, but we had to have pofessional blowers on for days. They have special equipment that can check you wood for moisture. It might be worth looking into so you don't get mold or termites. I will pray it all works out for you. I'm glad your home safe.

    ReplyDelete
  20. My heart ached for you today as I read this post. I am so sorry you had to go through such a difficult welcome home. Then it is just like you to turn around and share some smiles with me. You are a remarkable person! Hope this week is better for you.

    ReplyDelete
  21. 'Just stopping by to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
    And to let you know that I for sure count you as one of my Blessings!
    Love to you!, E

    ReplyDelete

Comments are blessings too...