Okay, so maybe that's a tish bit dramatic. But not for some people in the area, unfortunately. Like my sister's mom-in-law, JoAnn, and her husband John. If you've been reading the comments on the last couple of posts, you know that their disaster is quite a bit closer to actually impending than ours is. Like, say, in their driveway. Eeks.
I put a bunch of boxes on the ping-pong table last night (and managed to find the extra bobbins for my sewing machine in the process. Score! Do you know how annoying it is to only have ONE bobbin? Nope, probably not. You'll just have to trust me.)
Aaron plugged all our drains - sink, shower, toilet and floor drain in the utility room. However, the toilet's pipe is pretty corroded, and the hardware guy said the plug may not work at all, if it's too bad. Which means sewage spewage, possibly. I'm becoming more and more thankful that we haven't made any improvements to the basement yet, and I'm taking this opportunity to wash the bathroom rugs - and NOT return them.
The kids and I went out this morning and bought a battery-operated backup sump pump. Aaron said when he gets home from work today he'll be so excited to see my installation work. He also asked why I wasn't out shoveling the 6" of new snow off our driveway. Clearly, removing the toilet from its base (to install the plug) exposed him to mind-altering levels of sewer gas. They should warn people about the possibility of hallucinations.
We also trekked to Target and met some friends there, just to get out of the house, since all activities have been cancelled for the rest of the week. It was great - Target was practically deserted, so the kids had free run of the place. They even established a couple of "houses" in the Lawn Furniture area, until a couple too many heads got whacked by swivel chairs.
Now we are hunkering down. The peanut butter and bread supply has been refilled, so we won't go hungry. And I bought 5 bags of jelly beans, ensuring our blood sugar levels stay high. Let the battle begin!
Like a waterfall in slow motion, Part One
1 year ago
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6 comments:
problems with sewage brings back terrible memories of a friends stories. I will hope you don't get any of your own stories to tell. YUCKY!!
Meanwhile roll up your pantlegs and play makebelieve with the kids. Who wants to be Gilligan? or maybe you are more of a Robinsoe Curose kinda gal?
Do you have enough liquids for your family to last several days in the event the water treatment plant is compromised? Do you have a 5 gallon pail with toilet seat in case you can't use flush toilets?
Otherwise you folks look pretty ready.
PS I've heard that snow shoveling promotes oxygen uptake which can alleaviate those sewer gas hallucinations Aaron has been experiencing ;-)
I'm envisioning Noel's 5 gallon bucket. Ewww. Seriously, if it gets that bad you can always go south 3 hours and come visit. :)
I really hope you don't have to put that 5 gallon bucket to use.
Lovely Wife - Yes, here's hoping that we have NO interesting anecdotes from this experience. BORING IS GOOD.
Noel, you continue to freak us out. We have several 5-gallon paint buckets in the garage, and potty training means we have a couple of kid-sized seats, too -- Aaron and I can tough it.
I bought a 2 1/2 gal. collapsable water jug the other day, and just rescued a couple of milk jugs from recycling - minus lids. We'll improvise.
Blue Castle - We may take an impromtu trip to the Cities if things really get tough - assuming that the roads aren't closed, of course. And we feel like risking leaving our basement unattended. But thanks for the offer!
good luck with the impending disaster. Spoke with your mom this morning and things sound pretty bad. My parents have also been put on evacuation alert in bismarck. Crazy!! Stay safe and sane :)
Jeepers, this is nuts. Fill those bottles now! Tell Leah to pay attention to this, she'll be telling stories about it when she goes to college.
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