Invasion Parts 2, 3 and 4

I’ve been getting behind, it’s been a crazy week without a doubt. So…

Day 1:

Sat down to breakfast to the tune of hole saws, hammers, hums, buzzes and stomping around (hey Joe, get out of my chips!). Walked outside after I finished. The house looks like it’s on intravenous with all the blue, black and clear hoses running out of it. I half expect a 12 foot tall nurse to come waltzing into the backyard and take it’s vitals.

Around 12:00 the flooding started. Ran outside and up the stairs to the second floor where they’d been tearing out the old bathroom…not a soul around. Yet Little Niagara Falls was coming out of the ceiling over our new electric stove, soaking all the burners, cat dishes, two cats, towels and an electrical outlet (220 no less). A very bad combination.

I opened an umbrella, set it on the stove, stuck an old sap bucket under the rest of it and went off to read the news.

Day 2:

Had 3 appointments at the VA. Spent the day down in White River Junction at my “local” VA facility (113 miles down to road). No flooding down there.

Day 3:

Ceiling finally stopped dripping. We could now use the stove which was a good thing since we hadn’t eaten since Day 1.

House still on saline and mild tranquilizer drips although the crew states it should be able to be released by tomorrow morning.

Ate lunch to the soothing sounds of screeching/stuttering hole saws, screaming circular saws and somebody beating on something cast iron in the upstairs bathroom with a sledgehammer. There was a man pounding something onto the frame of our back door with a large hammer.

I went into the bathroom, locked it and spent the afternoon driving myself to utter distraction with my wife’s games and puzzles magazines. I literally suck at those things.

Day 4:

Weatherization crew finished up the night before. I finally came out of the bathroom just in time to go to bed.

Bathroom crew (our landlord and a guy named Gus) arrived shortly before 5:55 AM and proceeded to cause hell and discontent in the upstairs bathroom precisely at the strike of 6:00.

Went out into the kitchen, took my rifle off the wall, checked the clip and fired a few well placed shots into the ceiling over the stove. Things quieted down right quick after that. Went back to bed for an hour.

Sometime during the day there was a rather nasty din of someone(s) tumbling down the outside stairs along with what sounded like the old cast iron bathroom sink close behind. A final, sudden explosion of everything coming to a sudden halt at the bottom of the stairs punctuated by a short piercing scream then all was quiet.

I pulled out my hearing aids when I heard the sirens coming down the street. Sirens and hearing aids don’t mix well.

Day 5:

The bathroom crew didn’t start in until a more reasonable 7:00 AM this morning and even managed to keep the noise down to a dull roar all day. It should be all over by tomorrow.

This is a good thing since my wife’s son who lives on the second floor has been holding his water since Day 1.