so, soooo much to do

I woke up at 4:25am this morning and could not for the life of me get my mind to shut off enough to go back to sleep. I only have a few minutes before it's time to jump in the shower, but I figured I'd post a quick update on what's been happening.

My street it still closed, still flooded out unless you have a really big truck. I spent all day there yesterday meeting with various inspectors, MEMA, FEMA, DPW, and channel 4 news. I finally got permission to pump out the basement, which happened yesterday courtesy of the Methuen DPW. Part of me wishes there was still water in there as I couldn't see the extent of the damage when it was full. There is stuff everywhere. And I truly mean everywhere. I've never seen anything like it at all.

But, the water is out, which was step one. In order to get the power turned back on at the house, I need to have my electricity panel replaced. Thankfully my friend Joe is an electrician and is coming by this morning around 7:30 - 8:00am to switch it out for me. He's also doing my neighbors house so he'll be making quite the pretty penny today between the both of us.

Also happening today: my heating company is coming up to assess the damage to my furnace. I have to replace the furnace and hot water heater before they'll turn the gas back on. So he's coming up sometime this morning to get the specs on my furnace, etc. I'm not sure how quickly that will happen, but I'm hoping it'll be Monday or Tuesday. I'd really like to be back in the home by Wednesday or Thursday.

While all of that is going on, I need to start cleaning out the basement. Home Depot is going to love me today with all the money I'll have to spend in that place. I think the city is planning on putting a dumpster on the street for us residents to throw out all of our ruined items. I need to verify that though, because otherwise, I need to rent one very, very soon.

Work has been extremely understanding in my time of need. I've only been able to work a total of 5 hours this past week. My co-workers have stepped up to the plate and taken on the remainder of my projects that they could. 2 of my projects are being delayed because there isn't anyone that can do them. I'm hoping the delay won't be too great.

Probably the greatest stress factor I have right now is how to pay for everything. Everyone seems to think that FEMA will step up to the plate and help us out, which is great. However, there aren't a lot of people or stores that are willing to wait to be paid until that happens. So, I have to come up with a lot of cash in a very short amount of time. I have a few things in the works, so again, just hoping those will happen very quickly.

Unfortunately my car didn't get through this as well as I thought it might've. The water was 1/2 - 3/4 of the way up the tires, which didn't seem to bad. But once I was there, I could see that it had gotten much higher. The car wouldn't start and the inside was drenched. I'm really not happy about that but there's not a whole hell of a lot I can do about it. I've put a call into the insurance company and they're going to send a rep over sometime next week. Until then, I have a rental car, which I'm sure my sister is happy about since I've been driving her car the whole week.

They greatest irony of all is that I probably haven't been more financially destitute in my life, but I got to drive around in a Lexus all week and I'm living in a house I'd dream to have. Irony certainly is a bitch.

I did, however, get my 15 minutes of fame yesterday when I was shown on the channel 4 news last night. For some reason the news crews never show up when you're all dolled up and have a place to go. No. They show up when you haven't showered and have spent the day shlepping through 3 feet of water with no makeup on and physical exhaustion clearly written upon your face. Great.

Well, I'm off for a day of incredible back-breaking labor. Considering my back is in poor shape to begin with from the accident, it should be quite the painful day.

D