MarLa Sink Druzgal

Well, folks, Stinky A (Kurt) and Stinky B (Me) are making the best of this experience by learning some new things about home ownership, and adapting to no water. (Kurt gets “Stinky A” designation, btw, because he has not been showering at the gym.)

The good news is that they did replace that cut sewer pipe yesterday. The bad news is we have no water to flush the toilets. (The other bad news is that we noticed it’s leaking so they’ll have to repair it, or Schmarry really will be in a “shitstorm.”)

Mother Nature has provided an abundant water source right now: snow. When my sister house-sat for us in the storm of 2010 that knocked out power here for 6 days, no electricity meant no pump running the water from the springhouse. Thankfully at least she had gas, so she was able to cook and boil snow on the stove. But she was trapped from leaving due to downed trees across the driveway that had to be chainsawed apart.

So I’ve been melting snow to boil and to use for flushing the toilet, and Kurt is now helping the guys by drilling through the floor of the garage where the lines will come into the house.

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so Freddie and Schmarry are hauling ass to finish the trench today (even though with the rain, Kurt says no pipes will be run and now lines replaced tomorrow if it’s raining.)

He also says it’s lucky for Freddie and Schmarry that he’s home, because with the mood I was in here by myself without my woobie to relieve my stress, Kurt says they would have been running around headless and ass-less. He says I would have been out there relieving my tension by decapitating them both and shoving hot pokers up their butts each time they took a break to chit-chat.

Of course, he’s running his mouth off too, but neither of us are actually harrassing the guys, just spouting off for bursts of tension relief. For example, Kurt says if this were one of his construction jobs, they wouldn’t be filling the holes back up with frozen dirt that has vegetable matter that would create voids as it decays. It’s kind of like the sunken grave effect, where as it thaws and settles, everything will kind of collapse in on itself. On his jobs, they’d be required to bring in fresh dirt and fill it six inches at a time, compacting it as they go.  Of course, they’ll also be filling with gravel, but probably not the pea gravel or sand like Kurt says are necessary on the construction sites. And he seriously doubts they’ll do a soil compaction test. (I don’t think Mutt & Jeff know what a soil compaction test would be.)

But we’ll just be happy if we get heat and water and electricity restored to everywhere, and if we have to fill in the ditch again to offset sunken grave syndrome, we can deal with that, as long as what’s underneath the ground is laid and repaired well.

Because everything is taking longer than planned, I had to cancel my train trip. I’m still going to the conference, and meeting with the agents, but I’ll catch a flight out Wednesday and adjust my trip on the way back, also. I’m bummed about it, but this is the right thing to do. Kurt has to return to work Sunday, and somebody needs to be here in case there are any questions or access needed, etc.

Thanks again, for all the great support and well wishes. I’m also having fun writing a new story about what might be buried under the 4-inch cement pad discovered under a section of gravel. {cue ominous music 😉 }

Love, Stinky B

P.S. Yesterday I did those drop sets I love so much (with the trainer of course). After I “warmed up” on the bar chest press with sets of 65 lbs, etc., then he loaded it up with 95 pounds (which I can lower myself but not lift myself) and we did assisted lifts at 95, 85, 75, 65 until my arms completely fatigued. It was AWESOME! We did a variety of new weights, and he seems to like that I keep telling him to go heavier (I can’t help it – lots of stress to get rid of and I just love weights!) Eating was better yesterday too – all related to my frame of mine of course. I still had my midday coffee, but decided until I’m done freezing my butt off, that’s going to continue every day. But I avoided the sweets and even had salmon, broccoli and brown rice for dinner from a restaurant that has some healthy options.

Not having a stove or oven or microwave and always having the hotplate in use for water has been both a blessing and a curse for this eating thing!