Energy Lag
First, the good news – our son and his family, and more residents, are gaining electrical power. When I heard my daughter-in-law’s voice, saying, “We have electricity!” she bordered on giddy, the same emotion Adventureman and I shared when we heard the first click, our air conditioner coming on.
This morning, I emptied the dishwasher, folded my granddaughter’s laundry, fed all the cats and did some picking up. I planned to go to Chapel at my granddaughter’s school and then swim, but this morning I am tired and a little achy. I’ve been so pleased with my fitness level, and now I wonder if some of that wasn’t boosted by adrenaline. The picking up of debris seemed endless.
AdventureMan and I are luckily on track – we are both very concerned about our huge horizontal tree. We haven’t heard back from our preferred tree service. Our neighbor’s yards are full of our tree, and while we know, legally, it is their problem, this very large task really needs to be attacked by experts. One woman on Nextdoor was approached by one of the tree services and provided a quote of $26,000 for the removal of her tree. $26,000.
Lifelong Pensacolians tell us to wait; these are post-hurricane predators who move in to take advantage of the situation will fade away and prices will start coming down.
On the other hand, we fear a strong wind could bring this tree rolling towards our house, or the trees propping it up could fail, and the tree could roll towards our house. It seems risky to leave it in place, and yet we don’t want this tricky removal to be handled by amateurs.
This is what it feels like when the excitement of the storm ends, and our bodies and minds have to deal with the realities. In contrast, dealing with all the debris is doable and mind-numbing.
The crown of the tree, most of the leafy branches are down in our neighbor’s yard.
Legally, it is his responsibility. As good neighbors, however, we will work together. Right now the heavy branches anchor the tree in place; if those are taken off first, the trunk is free to roll. The trunk is tightly wedged, putting pressure on the other oaks; that area is clearly our responsibility. The heaviest part of the trunk is about twenty feet over our other neighbor’s yard. We need to fix this.
My house helper just asked me if we had noticed any problem with the water. We haven’t. The boil water notice ended last night and we stopped worrying about water. But when I checked, we barely have any water pressure at all, an unexpected happenstance.
So many post-storm occurrences. We know it will all be better, but meanwhile schools remain closed while they are inspected for safety. The school bus drivers can’t even get into some neighborhoods that are still blocked by trees down. AdventureMan left his famous fresh-baked biscuits for our mail carrier; she told us she still can’t deliver to the area behind our house because of street blockages and lines still down.
A Small Disaster
“Aaaahhhk! Aaaaaahhhhkkk! AAAAAHHHHHHKKKK! HELP! HELP!”
Our quiet, peaceful Saturday morning suddenly goes emergency mode as AdventureMan aaaacckkks in the kitchen.
“What??? What?!!” I ask, because he can’t articulate in his distress.
“We have water running all over the kitchen!” he gasps.
Alaska girl that I am, I have a stash of thirsty old towels nearby, and as I go to get the spare towels tub down, I ask “Where is it coming from?”
He checks under the sink and finds this:
There is a gap in the drain pipe to our right side sink. AdventureMan is in the process of making his famous beans, and when he ran the water, it started gusing out the gap. He tried to twist the connector-thingy but it did not grab.
“I’ll mop up, you call the emergency plumber,” I said, already at work gathering up the stuff stored under the sink, cleaning up the mess and dragging out things that needed to be further cleaned. It isn’t a bad leak, but it’s a leak that prevents us from running water into that sink. On the other hand, it gives me an opportunity to give the area a good cleaning up; you know how it gets under the sinks. As I am cleaning, I admire the solid pinewood cabinets in this mid-century house, built in 1974. I had the plain pine re-faced with birch when we bought the house, years ago, but I won’t replace solid wood cabinets.
Our normal plumber is a family owned business, with the luxury of taking the weekends off. Fortunately for us, there are emergency plumbers, and we are on the list for one to come today. Meanwhile AdventureMan has found a fan to dry out moisture remaining under the sink, and is continuing on with his baked bean magic.
LOL, as I look at this photo, I can see the near-empty tub for the towels on the dining room table, and the bottles from under the sink. And I see that the ham and the bacon are already frying to be added before the beans bake.
April has been a month for home-keeping. The handyman put in a set of discreetly hidden laundry lines outside, far from prying eyes, and I have already used them for sheets, and now they are ready for a load of towels to wash and dry for future emergencies. Our electricians put in lights and switches, small luxuries, but small luxuries can make such a lovely difference. I am personally thankful that the pipe broke while AdventureMan was using it, and that we tackled it as a team, so that the end result was only 15 minutes of chaos and disruption, rather than a whole morning. And oh, the wonderful aroma of beans baking slowly for hours, as AdventureMan makes his magic.
We are invited for a special celebration tomorrow, and when I asked “can I bring AdventureMan?” she immediately responded “Oh Yes! Can he bring biscuits?” Who knew that after a career as a top dog, he would become famous late in life for his fabulous cooking skills? Life is full of mysteries!
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