OY!!

Where to start, where to start?

Saturday around 3:45 a.m. our county tornado sirens started sounding so Eammon and I snuggled in bed and watched the local weather forecast for about 15 minutes until the satellite was knocked out. Then a second round of sirens started so we gathered up our pillows, blankets, a candle and a lighter and headed into the laundry to wait out the storm. Just as we got into the laundry room, the power was knocked out, so we settled in for about 20 minutes. With no further sirens, we moved to the family room sofa, in front of a wall of windows to watch the storm. The lightning was so fast it was as if a strobe light was going off.

Later in the morning, since we were still without power, we headed over to Dunkin' Donuts for some coffee and to be voyeurs and check out some of the damage. There was a huge tree on the power lines at the entrance of our subdivision which they were in the process of clearing, so we ventured out with the hopes of having power restored by the time we returned. Luckily things didn't seem too bad, lots of trees down, streets littered with small debris, twisted and damaged signs and a general mess. By around 2 P.M. we had our power restored, we plugged in everything and I checked items in the refrigerator and freezer, everything was fine, so day over.

Sunday morning I awoke late and walked into the kitchen to find a nice big puddle on the floor in front of the freezer. I opened up the door to find a bag of blackberries on the top shelf of the door dripping all the way down, covering everything in it's path. Items in the very top of the freezer were starting to get a bit soft but items in the bottom 2/3 were still frozen solid. So, I cleaned out the freezer, moving what I could to our other freezers and I put a couple of items into bowls in the refrigerator to defrost for meals later in the week. I put a call into the repair people and then went off for a fun afternoon hanging out with Sonia and Cindy where we were like kids in a candy store as we registered for all sorts of baby items at BRU. I copied Sonia and bought an adorable bib for Baby S but otherwise was very good and didn't purchase any of the adorable clothes.

Monday morning the appliance repair people called nice and early and said someone would arrive between 11 and 1; Perfect! While they were coming out, I added to the freezer repair that my washing machine wasn't going into the spin cycle correctly so that they would look at that too. Amazingly the repair man arrived by 12:30 P.M. and after disassembling the freezer, told me that he needed to order a circuit board and that it would take a week, no biggie. He then moved on the the washing machine where he bent some do-hickey and did a quick test to tell me everything was fine, then he was on his way. After he left I threw a load of laundry into the washer and went upstairs to make some phone calls and do some work.

Just before 2 P.M. I ventured downstairs to make a trip to the post office and saw a pool of water at the bottom of the steps. Now the wet bar is at the bottom of the stairs and my first thought was that the freezer under the bar died and defrosted all over the floor, but NO, that was not to be the end of the water.

I turned the corner to find that the newly repaired washing machine had poured out gallons and gallons of water into my family room, living room and garage. I moved what I could out of the way of the water and started using the wet vac. The appliance repair people were back at the house within 30 minutes of my frantic call and Eammon made it home in the blink of an eye to help.
Now my living room furniture is in the dining room and the living room is sporting two very large dehumidifiers and three blower fans which we get to listen to for at least the next 4 days!

I'm hoping that my wood floors can be saved, I'm not holding out too much hope right now that they won't have to be replaced, but keep your fingers crossed.

To everyone who is waiting on a package from me, I promise to get to them out tomorrow! Gosh it's only Monday, I hope this week improves!!