Bad Weather

Well, it's official. The weather here is nasty!!

Kris, Jolene, & I were in Bowling Green tonight and came out to go to my car and it was sleeting. Hard enough that the pellets were very stinging. We got to my car and I scraped the icy windows off and we moseyed on home. We took Jolene home and then went to Wal-mart to get some storm supplies (batteries for dad). By this time the roads were all covered with the ice pellets to make a nice almost snowy road.

When we got out of Wal-mart, it had turned to rain. And so now there's soupy, sleety, slushy goo every where. The trees are covered with ice, bringing back memories of the ice storm of 1994 when some people were without electricity for a week or more because of downed power lines.

Ok...I'm back after a 2+ hour delay. I was just finishing the previous paragraph when the electricity went out. My wonderful battery backup kept my computer from shutting off before I could save everything and shut it down. I shut down my computer, lit a few candles and went to call Dad.

I called their number and it was busy. I tried several more times to no avail, so I called Dad's cell phone and he answered. He had obviously been sleeping because when I asked him if they have electricity, he said "I don't know." I told him we had been without for approximately 5 minutes and as he went to ask Mom, he promptly hung up. The reason for calling him was that the sump pumps must run. We can do without all other amenities but the sump pump MUST run to keep us from floating.

I waited for 5 or 10 minutes to hear from him and when he didn't call back, I tried the home number (busy) and then called him again on his cell phone. He said that he would head out to round up a generator to bring over. He figured that we would have at least 30 minutes before we were in danger of water in the basement.

What I didn't realize is that he had been sleeping on the couch because he was rather suspicious that something like this would happen and when I woke him up, he couldn't remember where he had put his shoes. And without lights to search for them...

Kris & I put our coats on and went out to measure the water level. Back when we were having sump pump problems earlier (a whole other story), Dad had told us that if the water measured somewhere around 7 to 7.5 feet from the top of the manhole that we would be in danger of water coming into the basement. The water was 8 feet from the top.

Around this time, our upstairs tenant, Stacy, came out to see what was up and to keep us company as we nervously waited for Dad to arrive. She was nervous about the fact that her husband, Ray, was at work and wouldn't get off until 4:00 a.m. He has a Trans-Am (I think) and as Stacy put it, "That thing might as well be on roller skates in weather like this." She wanted to know if there was anything she could do to help us besides pray.

A bit later, I went back in to call Dad and see if any progress had been made because we didn't seem to hear anything happening over that way. I called him on his cell phone and he frustratedly told me that he was trying his hardest but the backhoe was key was frozen in place and he couldn't start it. I asked him if Martin's presence would be helpful and he said "Definitely!! Call him."

So I woke Martin up and explained the situation to him and asked him if he wouldn't go help Dad. He said he would. I went back up to the garage where Kris & Stacy were hanging out and we continued to chat.

We finally heard the backhoe start up and rejoiced that anytime a generator would arrive. We waited and we waited and we waited. We measured the water several times over the course of waiting and the water level had risen 3 inches. We were quite relieved that it wasn't rising faster than that. I finally went in and called the house to see if they had any updates for us.

When Dad had left the house, he quickly realized that he would need more clothes than he was currently wearing. The outdoor clothes that he usually wears were in one of the trucks so he went to get them...but the truck was frozen shut. He went back in and fished around in closets until he had sufficient gear to wear. Then he headed out to the backhoe and promptly sat on the seat which was covered with cold rain water and ice. You can imagine how that felt. Since the key was frozen in place, he had to chip away at the ice until he was finally able to turn the key and start it. He drove down to the barn to get a welder, but when he arrived at the barn, the doors were all frozen shut. The wind was blowing, it was frigid, anything he tried to access was frozen shut, and nothing was going right for him.

Martin had to find a candle to light so he could get dressed, and he finally arrived on the scene. He and Dad managed to chip enough ice away from his pull-behind generator to open it up and got it started. He hitched it to his Explorer and they came over to our house. It was somewhere between 1:00 and 1:15, probably at least an hour and a half since the electricity had gone off. We were so very glad to see them arrive. We had been pitching ideas around as to how we would start drawing the water up by hand, not an appealing idea.

The generator was backed up to the manhole and we got the extension cord, that Stacy had managed to dig from her stuff, and connected the outside sump pump to the generator. What a sense of relief!! The next thing to do was to find a cord long enough to run from the generator, into the garage, down the steps, and to the indoor sump pump, since it too needs to run occasionally.

Martin thought he had a cord in his carport but before he went after it, Kris brilliantly remembered that we have a very long weed-eater cord that would work. We got that cord and Martin took his end out to the generator and I took my end downstairs. I emptied the closet so I could get back in under the stairs where the sump pump was (smacking my head in the process) and went to plug it into the cord only to discover that the pump was a three-prong cord and totally incompatible with my two-prong extension cord. *sigh*

I managed to find an adapter in the laundry and plug the sump pump in. I was certain that something was wrong with the pump because it sounded weird. I summoned Dad and he came and listened and said it sounded fine to him. I figured out that since it usually kicks on before it's under water, I wasn't accustomed to hearing it in the muted fashion in which it was currently running.

Dad decided that his usefulness had run it's course and so he walked back home while Martin unhitched the generator and got us settled in. Martin went on home then, and Kris & I thanked Stacy for her support as we parted company.

I climbed back in to where the sump was to shut the lid to it and clean up a bit of water that had sprayed the wall while it was running. Just as I finished up, the beautiful florescent lighting from the living room lit up the closet. I nearly broke out into the Hallelujah Chorus.

Martin came back over and we plugged the pumps back into real electricity. He showed me how to start the generator if it became necessary during the night and went back home.

Kris & I had berated ourselves earlier for not taking our showers right after we got home, so the first order of business was showers. Who could know how long it would be until the next outage? I started my computer and typed some more of this e-mail while I waited for Kris to finish her shower. It was late enough after I got out of the shower that I just saved the rest
for later.

Dad & Martin definitely achieved hero status for their efforts on our behalf. My heart goes out to those who don't have someone nearby that they can call on in times of trouble. If you guys want a challenge, be a hero for someone that may not have the resources you have. It may be a widow, a single mother, or even an older single girl/lady. It might mean taking her somewhere in bad weather, transporting something in your truck, or building something for her. Even if she needs nothing, it may just make her day that someone cared enough to ask.

Domesticity

I am reminded once again that domesticity is not my forte.

I washed a load of white clothes the other day and, as an afterthought, pitched a royal blue dress that is several years old and should be over the sharing color stage. I never thought it bled in the first place. I've been known to wash a colored dress with whites every now and again, and it's always worked well for me. Not this time. The majority of my whites are now a lovely shade of slightly blue. *sigh*

Yes, Martha Stewart I am not, which, at this point in her life, is a good thing.

Guess I'll just stick to my debits and credits.

The Last Final

I arrived on campus this evening at the usual hour of 5:00 to take my last final--Personal Health. The class usually starts at 5:30 so I rushed up the three flights of stairs and entered the classroom in order to do some studying before the test. I was amazed to arrive in the classroom at 5:10 to find only one other student there. There are usually at least 4 or 5 people in the room and many times more than that. I sat down to catch my breath and after a minute or two, the light came on--maybe the final wasn't supposed to start until 6:00.

I pulled my calendar out of my backpack and found December 15th and confirmed that, indeed, it did start at 6:00. To my horror, under the time listed for the final was a note to myself that I needed to write three sentences of things that I learned from quackwatch.com. I always take extra credit opportunities if possible and had even thought of it while in the shower the previous evening but promptly forgot it.

I looked at my watch...5:15. I mentally ran the route to the library to the computer lab on the second floor, logged myself into the internet, did some quick research, and ran myself back to the top floor of my current building. In my mental calculations I figured that I could probably be back in my seat in 30 minutes, making it 5:45 with 15 minutes left to look over my notes.

I grabbed my backpack and headed out of the room in a purposeful manner. I met a student from my class on my way down the steps and figured he must think I'm nuts but stayed true to my course. I shot a dark look at a piece of sidewalk that tried to trip me as I cut through a parking lot, across a street, down some more stairs, and up even more stairs. I made it to the library in less time than I had budgeted and grabbed the first computer available.

I logged in--a seemingly long process when you're in a hurry--and went to quackwatch.com. I managed to find some lame sentences to write quickly, logged out, and retraced my steps, making sure to lift my feet around uneven pieces of sidewalk. I made it back to my building and up the three flights of stairs in record time. I settled back into my desk not more than 20 minutes after I'd left it and before any other students had arrived. I was pleased.

Other students began to arrive and discovered that they had forgotten to take advantage of the extra credit opportunity. They desperately asked around for someone to tell them what they could write without having gone to the website. I wasn't much help since I spent less than 5 minutes there, but I'm not sure that I would have helped them if I could have. In my opinion, you get credit for what you do.

They finally succeeded in finding a student that had gone to the website and had actually printed some stuff out. They passed his paper around and several of them got something off of it. They may get by with it but, then again, they may not.

The test was relatively easy, mostly common sense stuff about safety, etc. Since we only spent one class lecturing on the information on the test, Mrs.W said that if we had any questions, we could ask and she would have mercy on us.

So as of 6:30 this evening, I officially finished my first semester of college. And what a feeling it was!! I called Kris and we shared some elated rejoicing as we headed for home. I didn't even bother to bring any of my school stuff into the house...simply because I didn't have to. Now I have to see what meager pittance I can get for the books that I paid so dearly for.