*I Wonder Why?* Wednesday

I wonder why.......

I hear water running?

My first thought was that someone....probably a child of mine, left a tap on in the bathroom but upon inspection I found the taps securely in their off position.

But I can still hear water running.

I follow the sound.

It's coming from the basement.

I don't go into the basement....it's icky!

But I figure I should check it out so I venture down the stairs.

The sound is getting louder.

I have visions of a leaking pipe or hose in my head.

I turn on the light.

Well look at that. Not a pipe or hose at all.........

Just all the melting snow outside leaking into the basement.

And not just seeping in through the cracks....no, it's an actual stream of water in places.

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaa!

Why does this house torment me so? Why?

What's even better is all that snow that melted last week and made it's way inside my basement will soon be joined by even more because we woke up to another yard full of snow this morning. Oh goodie!

I really believe Mike Holmes would have a heart attack if he ever saw my house. I don't think even Mike could

~K

Seriously? Seriously! Seriously!!!!

The furnace has been jacked up to 25 and has been running continuously for the past 3 hours so WHY is the house getting colder not warmer? Why?Why!Why? Mother Nature has got to cut me some slack cuz I simply cannot afford to even open the Hydro bill at this rate never mind pay it. My hands are so cold I can barely type and I feel a breeze on my back as I sit here. The cold is seeping in through every thin wall and crack imaginable and it's so so depressing. Someone please turn off the A/C outside. I so wasn't kidding when I was asked what we were doing for Christmas and I said....'don't know about the rest of them but I'm planning on being in Florida'.

The Good - The Bad - The Fugly

The title pretty much sums up how I'd describe the first 15 days of December. Only 9 more days till Christmas and really I'm not feeling the usual pre-holiday stresses. Too busy with the normal everyday ones that I haven't even hit Christmas-is-coming-and-I'm-so-not-ready on the stress-o-meter....yet. But it's coming. I can feel it.

Still light on the 'good' these days but still managing to keep sane with only the occasional melt down. The 'bad' snuck in and bit me on the backside. My mom's scope tests scheduled for 7am almost two weeks ago but were cancelled at the last minute due to medication conflicts with the procedure. After much eye-rolling it's been rescheduled for the first week of January. They tried to reschedule it for last week but again a medication conflict which is a good thing because we wouldn't have shown up. She got way sick last week. We thought at first she had a stomach bug (which has definately made the rounds through town...and my house) and I thought we'd dealt with that reasonably well but then discovered, after a routine blood test, that her potassium had dropped too low - dangerously low. The symptoms were so similar to the flu though that we totally missed it. When she wasn't feeling better...actually getting worse by this weekend I hauled her into the ER where we were pleased to hear her potassium levels had returned to normal BUT (and it's a really big BUT) at some point while her potassium was too low, she may have had some sort of heart trouble. Blood tests done in the ER showed markers that indicate she many have recently experienced a heart attack. Can't say for sure when but the marker levels have since decreased so I don't think there's any lasting issue. In the mean time she still wasn't feeling well......but why was a mystery. A mystery until the doctor pressed on her face and she went through the roof in pain. We had a huge d'uh moment when we realized the worsening of her symptoms on Saturday had nothing to do with potassium or the flu. She has a sinus infection. 24hours of advil cold and sinus and some anti-biotics and she says she feels like she might live (always a good thing) and is getting stronger by the day. Will the fun ever stop???

But wait. We haven't got to the FUGLY part yet. And this is definately F-n Ugly! We waited 25 days and now it's official. We've definately lost our contract. We will wait till the holidays are over before we seriously start crunching numbers and see just how deep in the shit we are and see if there is any way we can sustain the business on just the one contract. Shutting down completely leaves the business (which is it's own entity thankfully!) with a huge debt and our safety net of hauling scrap metal in to help pay that down dropped out from under us when our buyer informed us the price had bottomed out. Could anything else go wrong? Doubt it. We've pretty much covered all the bases here.

So we face 2009 with the prospect of unemployment and are trying very hard to be optimistic and think of this as a new beginning. It's terrifying though. After almost 14 years of being self-employed we are forced now to find work with someone else. Al has already picked up the books and has been studying to get his class 1 license and he should be able to find a job relatively easily. I'm not feeling as optimistic about my options. No matter what happens though, 2009 is definately going to be quite different than what we are used to around here.

I'm keeping busy this week, trying not to think too much about the future and focus on the here and now. And the here and now involves a little home reno and furniture moving.....9 days before Christmas....cuz I'm crazy that way. It might not be the greatest timing but if it solves some of the family dynamic issues we've got going on around here and improves the amount of living space we have - then it will all be worth it. It's kind of my Christmas present to myself and my sanity. I just hope the project moves along quickly because I really need to get that Christmas tree put up...and finish shopping.

a love/hate relationship...heavy on the latter

Recently Sue at navel gazing at it's finest wrote a letter and it got me thinking......if I could write a letter like that who would I write it to. Instantly I knew who was getting a letter from me and while it will in no way be as side- splittingly funny as Sue's letter (did you go read it? you should - it's really funny) here is my letter:


Dear Old House

Don't get me wrong Old House, this isn't hate mail and I don't want you to feel threatened by it but I have some things to get off my chest. Maybe we will get along better after I've said my peace.

I know you have been stoiclly withstanding the ravages of time and weather and have provided shelter and a home for 4 generations of this family but honestly - you can't not know that you are making me crazy. I'm sure you've heard me rant on more than one occassion about your lack of closet space - or any closets for that matter and your floorplan is just plain crazy. Talk about wasted potential. And dont' think it's just me thinking this way. I've spoken with the former Lady of the House and she'll back me up on this. You should hear her opinions about your kitchen design. It would make your windows crack...or maybe you've heard the stories? Your original hardwood flooring and I have huge issues and we wont even go into that new(ish) laminate stuff they put in your kitchen a half dozen years ago that's just entirely sad. The sagging and sloping floors are just a plain joke. Really. They are a joke. Can't you hear us all laughing at you when someone spills a drink on the floor and it rolls out of the kitchen faster than anyone can get a cloth to soak it up with? Do you think the mop has a permanent spot in the doorway just for asthetic purposes? No, it's to trap the water when the stupid dog tries to carry his water bowl through the house. No matter where he spills it......the water eventually ends up in that one spot as if by magic. This just cannot be right.


Oh and speaking of water. Oh boy do we need to talk about water. What is with you and water. I'm fairly certain that when it rains outside your main purpose is to keep the rain out. Why oh why do you insist on letting it in? Do you not realize that it is not supposed to rain INSIDE and especially in areas where important things are kept like my computer and my scrapbooking stuff. I'm tired of relocating these things to accomodate you. Seriously what is up with the whole water leak thing?


Shingles you say?


Ya - as if anyone in their right mind will climb onto that ski-jump you call a roof. Many a man has been struck speechless when I suggest they climb up there and give you a much needed facelift - and these are professionals OldHouse. Not just any joe-shmoe I'm trying to buy off with a 24 of Bud and a couple pizzas - those guys just laugh hysterically and think I'm JOKING and then drink my beer anyway!


I know in my heart this isn't all your fault. You are in serious need of some TLC but I don't honestly think Ty and the crew from Extreme Home Makeover will be waking us with bullhorns in this lifetime so could you cut me some slack? OilOfOlay doesn't make vats of Age-Denying formula big enough to tackle some of the cracks and wrinkles you've got going on. That new one by the bathroom (which we will not even discuss because the subject makes me ill) door - where did that come from? I just spotted it last night and almost had heart failure. What are you doing to me? I'm going to need to colour the grey out of my hair next week if you keep this up.


I'm seriously trying so hard not to be jealous of those new condos we've been working at the past month but you are making it very very hard not to be. I mean you should see their closet space and the floorplan just melts my heart and Al - OMG he has fallen in love with the height of the basement in them and can you blame him? Remember that time he was working down in your basement and he broke not one but three lightbulbs in one afternoon by walking into them? Sure we got a good chuckle out of that but that time he hit his head coming up the stairs and he almost blacked out - that was so NOT funny.


You know what else isn't funny?

Your smells. Funky yes but I'm not seeing the humor. Do you have a pet hampster around here that I'm not aware of? OH and if you do - don't tell Em or she will be ticked that you got one before she did. I'm seriously considering letting her get one just so it's cage can mask the odour you have going on these days. And again we will not discuss the bathroom and it's variety-show of smells when anyone has a shower or at various other random times for that matter.


I hate to bring up the front room - aka 'the addition' ,which I know is not technically your responsibility since it isn't really part of YOU but a little help in getting along with that room and not adding to the tension between us would be much appreciated. I'd like to be rid of the offending room myself but that decision seems to be in limbo so we will just have to live with it - at least for a little while longer.

So here's the thing. We know you need some help. A 12-step program of recovery maybe...the lottery would be helpful too but that's likely to bring about bulldozers faster than you would care to think about. The menfolk are absolutely against such action as they have a soft spot for you but in case your math isn't up to snuff the womenfolk outnumber the men and you don't want to know which way we would vote if it came right down to it.


We are willing to help you in any way we can but could you please OldHouse, please give us a break and give the whole aging gracefully thing a try for a bit. We really do appreciate you and you hold so many memories within your poorly insulated and slightly leaning walls. You've seen one man grow from a boy to a grandfather over the past 60+ years and helped him raise his 5 children and I'd love for you to be around to watch our 4 children and their cousins (his grandchildren) grow up too. Just think about it OldHouse.




Sincerely

Your Family