The Weekend ~ the short version of the story

Friday night Jenne and I had a very nice dinner at Bella Luna up on Route-40 in the Triangle Shopping Center. Most excellent Italian food and the service is always outstanding.

Saturday from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM I volunteered at Antietam and photographed the setup for the 17th annual illumination. Twenty three thousand candles are set up by one thousand volunteers. I couldn't stay for the illumination because I had the new job Christmas Party to go to Saturday night. So no new night photography this time around.

Saturday night Jenne, Lynn (who also works where I work) and I went to the company Christmas party at the Hyatt Crystall Ballroom in Bethesda. We had a very good time. The food was excellent and the dancing was much fun. We left the party a little after 11:00 PM to find a wintery mix was falling. Some roads were covered in a thin white coating of snow/ice, but the drive was fine and Red 5 handles great.

Arriving home I go to the basement to check food, water and liter boxes. I find that the condensation pump has failed!

We have soaked carpets and water on floor in utility room and in the walk-in closet. There's no damage to any of belongings, as we put everything up on 2x4s many months ago. I do not freak out. I keep myself in check and go into "emergency response mode". For me this is a calm, Zen-like state in which I develop a plan of attack and act on it. Freaking out raises blood pressure, upsets those around me, wastes valuable time and honestly serves no purpose. I learned that a long time ago. I ask Jenne to get me towels and to get the carpet steamer out for me. I know I can use the steamer to suck up water from the carpets. We don't have a wet/dry vac. We have no room for one. I was up until 1:30 AM cleaning up the mess as best I could. The carpets are now only damp. I leave towels on the floor of the utility room and closet and go to bed.

Sunday, I fixed the pump, tested it and monitored it on and off throughout the day. I set up the two convection space heaters (well away from anything) and the dry out process starts. All goes well. I cleaned up the rest of the mess in the basement, washed and dried all of the towels and put the steamer away. Jenne and I watched the Raven's game all the way through. The Ravens pulled out a win on a Matt Stover field goal with only ten seconds left on the clock. The win really doesn't matter because our record is so bad this year that the playoffs were lost to us weeks ago. Though it is still nice to see a plus in the W column. I checked the pump/basement before going to bed and all was fine.

Monday morning. I walk out of the house and put my stuff in the car and prepare to head off to work. A little voice in my head says, "go the basement... go to the basement!" You all know where this is headed. I go to the basement to find that the condensation pump had died the final death sometime in the night and I am facing a repeat of Saturday night/Sunday AM. I throw down all the towels that I cleaned and dried on Sunday and get the carpet steamer out. Time to suck up water again. I clean up what I can, shut down anything that could put water in that damed pump and startegically place towels all over the floor. I call Will P. (Lynn's hub). He tells me what to shut down and says that he'll come over on Tuesday to replace the pump. I drive to work with the heated seat turned on to help relieve the pain in my lower back and the feeling that there's a baseball under my skin and next to my spine. I am congested and sneezing from the mold/mildew/damp of the basement. This is it. I can't take anymore water in the basement. This is like the sixth time in five or six years that something has gone wrong with something involving water in the basement. I am not going to put up with it anymore. I am going to learn how to install tile and just do it. The carpet needs to come up and tile needs to go down.

Yeah, that's the short version.

Cheesus H. Rice what a fracking, FRACKING mess.