my $1435.69 week

Monday morning I was so looking forward to getting back to the regular swing of things. I'd really had enough of holidays and family and socializing and eating and drinking. That's not to say I didn't have any fun, because I sure had some fun, and had one of the best christmas's ever, but I really was ready to get back to my routine. So I get up on monday and fart around for a while and then go to have a shower to get back to work after 5 days off. What the heck? There's no hot water. I grab a lighter to go down to the basement to check out the pilot light on the water heater because I've had some troubles in the past. HELLO 5 INCHES OF WATER IN MY BASEMENT! Holy shit.

Long story short: I call a plumber to see if I can a new hot water heater installed that day, and call work to tell them I won't be in. Find some dudes that will come that day. Go to home depot and rent a pump to start draining the basement. Drag the frozen garden hoses out of the shed and put them in the house to thaw. Hook up the pump and start draining it into the bathtub. Plumbers come and won't install the new water heater till there is less water down there, so basically just have to wait till the water recedes. Realize after 8 hours of pumping out water that everything I dump down the bathtub is coming right back up into the basement, so I'm looking at sewer troubles too. Stick the hose out the window and drain into the backyard. Call the city and they come look but they won't do anything until it's less wet. Get 3 hours of sleep on monday night cuz I'm repositioning the pump all night.

Tuesday morning the plumbers come back and start hooking up the new tank. Call work to say I need another day. Call the city back cuz most of the water is gone, but they tell me they won't bring the electric auger in till it's completely dry. They fuck around for a while with a metal snake and get a bit of clearance in the sewer drain, but tell me that I'm not allowed any solid waste, just water. Fine. They leave. In the middle of all of this my truck won't start again so I call CAA and get a boost - it starts but is running weird, and halfway to Lawson Mall where I have to go return something I stall out and then stall out again 10 times in 20 minutes so I turn around and eek my way home through the side streets. Go inside, and when I go to reposition the pump again I get completely sprayed with sewer water. Start crying. Call my mom. She lends me her car.

Call the insurance agents, my sewage deductible is $1000 so it's not worth claiming anything because nothing was "damaged". Call a cleaning company and they come by and give me an estimate of $41 per hour per guy, probably 2 hours with 2 dudes. Tell him fine, and they will come by in the morning.

Wednesday morning the "disaster repair crew" comes and I leave them in my house while I go to work. Come home after work and it is SPOTLESS down there. It's seriously nicer than when I bought the house. Call the city back and the 3rd set of dudes come, they finally deem it clean enough to bring the electric auger in. 2 hours later they start wondering aloud if I have a collapsed pipe. Good lord. They bring in the camera and figure out it's one of the worst cases of tree roots they've ever seen. 3 hours later and they're finally done, it's after 10pm, and they leave.

My truck starts working again after I drive it up and down 29th street a few times gunning it. Call my mom's friend's friend mechanic lady because I'm not a fan of it dying every time it's colder than -40C. Take it in this morning and she gives me a ride to work. Went and picked it up at lunch, new fuel filter and fuel treatment, couple of suggestions to get done in the near future but I'm ok to financially recover for about a month.

So it's now friday afternoon and everything in my life is working again. What a week, I tell ya, what a week. So far 2009 has been AWESOME! But no one is hurt, and it's only money, and I've been really seriously trying to keep a positive attitude this whole time. Laugh instead of cry, you know? It helped when the plumber left a huge dump in my non-flushing toilet... I laughed about that one for a while...