Last Friday, I decide to take a deep breath, plan a quiet peaceful evening with a good dinner, and I anticipate relaxing to watch a good Netflix. Bam!!! Not so easy. An alarm goes off, screeching in the basement. It is so loud I am afraid to go downstairs. I get the courage to open the basement door, creep down the stairs only to find that the alarm is for the septic system.
Now what? Who to call? I call my plumber and he says “Not me, you have to call the septic company.” He does talk me through how to shut off the ear-splitting alarm. I call the septic company and get an answering machine. It is after 5:00 on Friday.
Okay. I decide the best thing to do is have a glass of wine and try him again later. Two hours later I get him on the phone and he tells me that I will be okay until Monday. Delicately, I ask about using the toilets and he says “Yes, once a day to flush, and you can take brief showers”. “By the way,” he says,
“You will have to make sure we can get to the two drain covers.”
There are three feet of snow in the barn driveway and the plow guy pushed another foot onto the area in the storm two days ago. I go out in the dark and try to shovel but it is rock hard. I call the plow guy who has not been the most helpful person on my list, and beseech him to come in the morning and plow the barn driveway so I can find the drain covers. He comes, pushes the snow off to the left slamming into the rock wall, and drives off before I can tell him that he did not get to the drain covers. I dig for an hour and find them mostly because I sort of remembered where they were.
The septic company arrives on Monday, they pump the tanks, but still nothing and it turns out the pump is bad and so it will be five days before they can get someone to install a new septic pump. The electrician arrives and asks me where the junction box is? The junction box? I have no idea. I find the septic plan that was in the closing documents for the house but there is nothing denoting the juncture box. The electrician digs through the frozen tundra, guessing where this box would be and finally finds it.
This is when friends say that I should consider living in a condominium with a property manager who would deal with all of these issues. And it does sound appealing after shoveling for hours, and for limping along with minimal septic for a week. However, I look out at my menagerie of animals including my rescued mini donkey and know that living in a condo wouldn’t work for me.
Solving the septic problem, I think I am okay and actually feeling pretty good about myself.
But the week is not over ………. here we are and then bam….
I get in my car and find five warning dashboard lights blinking. Looking each one up in the manual, they include tires need air, windshield wipers need fluid, ABS brakes (see dealer immediately), Anti-skid light (see dealer immediately) and something I couldn’t find that flashed TPSM(is that like PTSD for cars)? I do not need this right now…. I drive into the bay at the Audi dealership….. I describe the problem, they give me a loaner and I drive off…..
Two days later I get the call. “Looks like a rodent got into your engine, ate the wiring for brakes, tires, wipers and some computer that controls windows and seat heaters.” It will be around $1700. Do you want us to repair it?”
Do I want you to go ahead? Of course, I do. How am I supposed to drive the car with wiring eaten by a rodent? I am now on the war path in my garage. Me, who loves animals, now want to poison anything breathing in my garage and attic. Me, who loves guinea pigs and hamsters, now want to kill these rodents that decided to use the engine of my Audi as a gourmet restaurant. Done over, this is it…. Moth balls, dryer sheets, peppermint spray, anything I can get my hands on that will get these creatures….I know, I know, I do feel badly. It is cold outside and my car engine is warm and the coating on the wiring is yummy.
The joys of day to day life…..I keep smiling through it all. I will move beyond this week. I pause to remember that there are millions who have lives that are terribly tragic and stressed during this pandemic. I am fortunate to have a warm house and a refrigerator full of food. It would be negligent and thoughtless at the very least if I lost track of this perspective.
Answer to this week’s calamities ….keep a sense of humor and remember that there are others who need our support.
Ciao
Lucy and Claudia