Sunday, September 30, 2012

Overflowing

 268/366
So, you know, how frazzled I've been.  I know you all understand.  It's been crazy, horrible, overwhelming, faith fortifying, and wonderful all at the same time.  I've been like a fibrillating heart, so much to do, and I can't do anything. I needed a shock to jumpstart me.  I guess I just didn't expect to do it to myself.    You ever do something so awful that you're completely amazed that your spouse can forgive you?  Amazed they stay with you?  Yeah.  I'm Blessed like that. 

You know my wonderful bathtub?  The one Eric got for me, and built an entire bathroom for my tub to fit into?  Yes well.  It takes forever to fill.  And Monday night, I was feeling so Done, that I started it up to take a hot bath.  Then I sat down at the computer "real quick" to check my emails, find out how Kaylee was doing etc. Next thing I know the fire alarms are going off, mass hysteria.  I run downstairs, yelling, what's the matter, turn on the fan!  Eric was cooking, and as much as I love him and his cooking, he tends to set the alarms off. Often.  So naturally I thought it was him, so I opened the back door. I heard rain.  Only when I looked outside, it wasn't raining.  I listened, and realized it was raining INSIDE the house.  I followed the noise, into the mudroom.  Eric followed me.  We were struck dumb as we looked and saw water pouring out of the mudroom fire alarm.  Raining.  
Eric yells (now keep in mind fire alarms are still going off here) "where is the running water coming from?"
Oh, I gasped, The Tub.  

I ran upstairs to find about 1/2 inch of water on the southern half of the bathroom floor, and the tub absolutely overflowing.  Like one of those fancy swimming pools that have no edges, the water just rolls off the sides in sheets.  Yes.  That was my bathroom. 

There was yelling.  I was crying.  I was so sorry.  I broke the house.  Eric was only angry for a few minutes. We went to work on sopping it up downstairs, while I did upstairs.  I was amazed he didn't want to just kill me. I'd broken our house.  The house that he had worked so hard on.  I killed it.  Because not only did I flood the bathroom, down into the mudroom, but there was water in the basement, that dripped right on all our Uverse (internet) stuff.  It looked very bad.  

Eric shut down the power to those area of the house, but even with the power off, the fire alarms wouldn't stop ringing.  Eric turned off the circuit, but they kept going off because of course, they have battery backups.   My ears were starting to ring.  I snagged earplugs for he and I. Chris was asleep (bad ear up) so he didn't hear a thing.  Sam was semi-conscious and confused.  So I put their headsets on them and they quickly went back to sleep (amazing right with the alarms still going?!).  Prinny went outside, she was beside herself.  While outside with her, I called 911.  When they asked if it was an emergency, I said, yeah, I think so, I'm not sure.  And I burst into tears again.  

They took pity on me, and sent a fire truck. 



The amazing firefighters came tromping in, probably half a dozen of them.  And they looked at the mudroom.    They said it was wise we turned the power off, so to avoid any shorts.  And since we'd killed the ciruit of the raining fire alarm, he was ok to reach up and grab it.  So he reached up and disconnected it.  Immediately, the noise in the house stopped.  It had been over half an hour total.  The firefighters suggested poking some holes in the ceiling, so that the water that was bowing through the drywall there, could have a spot to come down, and it wouldn't come collapsing down on our heads.  May even save the drywall.  So we did.  Eric got up and poked a few strategic holes in the ceiling, and we had buckets underneath to catch the water.  We plugged the dehumidifier in the hallway and put it in the mudroom, just to suck water out of the air at their recommendation too.  

And Eric forgave me.  When we could sit and talk, he was amazingly understanding about my making a mistake.  He was understanding about me being so distracted. He even joked, well you'll never leave the tub unattended again.  No, no I won't.  And he immediately called into work for the next day, so he could stay home, call guys, and get it all worked out.  God Bless Him.  And God Bless those Firefighters. 

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