Does a black cloud have a silver lining?

Do you ever feel like you're stuck between a rock... and another rock? That your reality is encased in isolation, incubated and muffled by a dense, thick, black cloud? This has been my week!!! I feel like all I've had to write about lately are my Murphy's Law stories, but alas... at least I'm able to make a little bit o' comedy out of it.

Last weekend, Seester and I had a fabulous 24-hour trip to Sheboygan, WI to visit some family. While there, we were treated to a fantastic dinner, a walk in a beautiful forest preserve, a neighborhood tour, an overdose of delicious Wisconsin cheese, frisbee golf, a gourmet breakfast, a late-night campfire, and more. It was a lovely getaway. We're pretty good when it comes to making the most of a short weekend!

I no sooner get home on Sunday after my 6-hour drive, when we discover our 40-gallon water heater has somehow managed to break, flooding our basement. Water has even seeped through the separating wall, thereby soaking our new carpeting and of course the padding underneath. Ever walked through a field that has just experienced excessive rain? That was our basement bog at 9:30 p.m. While trying to remain calm and quickly make some calls, I call the insurance company and make a claim. Miraculously, I was able to talk to a real person on the first call. I made my claim and had step one was over and done with. Temporarily. The insurance lady allegedly had dispatched ServiceMaster to come out that night to begin drying out the carpet. We waited and waited. Nothing. The insurance lady calls back a couple hours later to check and see if the technician had contacted us. Still nothing. She says she'll take care of it. Still nothing. By this time, it's about 3:30 in the morning and we've spent several hours using our own WetVac to do what we could removing the water. We have a 6-gallon WetVac and I think I emptied it about 6 times. That's a LOT of water. Next, I made a call to the home warranty company, which boasted 24-hour service, but which really only meant that you're able to talk to an automated system 24 hours a day. Ok, water heater reported for coverage. I'm told that the plumber who would replace the water heater has 24 hours to respond, so it wouldn't be until Tuesday that someone would come out. So much for "emergency" service. I'm glad bleeding out the eyes isn't something I'd use a home warranty for.

Tired of this story yet? Yeah, me too. But wait, there's more. Much more. On Monday morning about 6 a.m., we wake up again and find that our WetVac efforts were for naught. The carpet was re-saturated. I call the insurance company again, and tell them no one from ServiceMaster ever called or showed up. We are then upgraded to the "premium" restoration service, and are told we'd be contacted by 10 a.m. Ten minutes later, the ServiceMaster dude finally calls and says (insert hillbilly voice),

"So's I hear you folks gots some water in your basement?"

"Um, yes" I say. "I reported that as an emergency well over 12 hours ago."

"Well, ma'am, I just now got the message."

"Well" I said, "We're using another company that will actually come out when they are called for an EMERGENCY."

The ServiceMaster dude acts all apologetic and says he can have someone out asap, but I tell him to forget it & that someone else will be out. After a couple more hours of waiting, the restoration folks come out and do their assessment.

"Mmmmmm. Uhhhh, huhhhh... you got some wet carpet here..."

Yes, that's great. Very astute. They use their little water measuring tools and pull up the carpet and cut out the soaked padding. Let the fans begin. Anyway, after what could be several more paragraphs of shenanigans, things are just about back to normal. The new water heater is in, the carpet is dry, the new padding is in. On Tuesday, they come to clean the area that was flooded, and we should be back to normal.

But then Monday night arrived.

It was a nice night, perfect for walking the dogs and trying to put this fiasco behind us. But really, I should have just stayed in bed. We had walked about half a block, when we were startled by the neighbor's rottweiler that was behind a 4-1/2' fence. Benny went into his famous Cujo mode, ferociously barking and bearing his teeth. I was walking Mona, who whipped around to see what was going on. Before I knew it.... WHAM. Somehow tangled in the leashes, I was knocked to the ground like a ton of bricks, scraping a sizable chunk of my knee and bruising a few other things in between. Meanwhile, Benny had taken a nice chomp out of the neighbor dog's nose. The neighbors of said rottweiler come running out to see what happened, apologize, and I manage to hobble up and dust myself off. We walked for a little while longer until my knee throbbing got to be more than I could handle. I spent the rest of the night in our oversized chair, nursing my knee under a bag of frozen butterbeans and ate a comforting ice cream cone.

Almost done yet? Mmm, nope. Not quite.

9:00 p.m. last night. Doing a little laundry, and find that the drain near the washing machine has backed up. There's now standing water on the other side of the basement. The hubby runs to the store and picks up some nice, toxic Drain-o and feeds the stopped up drain. After 12 hours or so of "resting", things seem to be ok this morning. I try to do a little more laundry, watching to make sure there are no "bubble-ups" taking place. But ahhh, here we go again. Bubble, bubble, bubble up it came. I'm sitting here at this very moment now, awaiting the Saturday plumber to come out once again.

Calgon, please! Take me awwwwaaayyyyyy!!! Ever see the movie, The Money Pit with Shelley Long and Tom Hanks? Filming of the next movie will be starting soon...