6ixString's Magical Mystery Deep-sea Antartic Underwater Adventure.... by 6IXSTRINGJACK

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

6ixString's Magical Mystery Deep-sea Antartic Underwater Adventure....

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Thursday, February 14, 2013 07:32
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 2158
PAGE 1 of 1

Friday, February 1, 2013 4:13 PM

Or....

Why you shouldn't wait one single second to do whatever you can to replace a sump-pump you even have the slightest suspicion is faulty, especially when you live on a flood plane.

First, the good news. My Zoeller Sump-Pump from Amazon.com was everything it was advertized to be. It weighs about 35 lbs., it's die cast iron, it's Made in the USA, and it somehow manages to be the most powerful little motor with zero noise output. It also only took half the time for delivery they promised. On top of that, they don't sell pumps of this caliber at the "big box" stores, and Sears wanted $130 more for it than what I got it for!

Also good news, I got it two days ago.... two days before...... today......

The bad news.....

I've been bedridden with 101 degree fever for two days. I could barely drag myself to the door to pick it up, and by the time I got there the UPS guy had already taken off. Not only that, but he put it right in front of where my screen door opens, so I had to put on all of my clothes and bundle up and go out the back door, make my way to the front and lug it in. Then I went back into a NyQuill induced dreamland for who knows how long?....

The last thing I wanted to do was traverse the icy-cold floors of my unheated basement and crab-walk through my crawl space and spend 30 minutes installing the new pump, let alone taking a necessary trip to the local Menards to get the new PVC and other parts I'd need to hook it all up. My old pump was working erratically for a few weeks, but it was still getting all of the water out even if it was on way more then it should be to do the job. We just had hard rainfall straight for over 14 hours the other day and it performed like a champ, even if a mildly "special" champ......

"I'll just wait a few more days, wait this illness out....."

It seemed like a good plan, especially since it's like 10 degrees by me now and even though it's snowing there shouldn't be that much water going into the pump with it that cold outside.

OOPS.....

At 11AM today I went out to the kitchen to get a glass of water. I just happened to look to my right in the basement and see about 1/2" of water in the "living area". Oh

!

Don't ask me how I manged to do what needed to be done in the next 2 hours with a fever, but all I can think is that there really is something to say about being forced into "survival mode". Yanno, those stories when moms have been forced to lift cars to save their kids and such?????

First thing I did was put on my shitiest clothes and shoes and went down, figuring it couldn't be that bad with only 1/2" of water in on the tiles. Bad plan.... Between the ever-deepening slope of the crawl-space toward the sump and having to reach shoulder deep in ice-cold water to retrieve the old pump after unhooking it from the back-flow, I was much colder than I would have been without clothes.

Okay.... now the pump is out. I've never installed a pump before, and this is kind of a rush job. Maybe I can remove the old PVC from the old pump and put it in the new pump as a temporary fix..... Nope. Might as well be soldered on. I need new hardware....

Great... I haven't showered or shaved for going on three days.....

Run upstairs, take a hot shower, shave days of "101 degree" stubble off my face and do my best to look like I'm not a vagrant for a trip to Menards. Find a knowledgeable looking older gentleman, get everything I need, head back home.

Quickly try to do three things. 1) Attach the new female PVC connector properly with the PVC primer and glue. 2) Intelligently measure where I need to cut the 5' length of PVC so it matches up with the existing hook-ups, while being under the CRUNCH of knowing that the water level in my basement has noticibly risen since I first noticed the problem. 3) Making sure to add "just a little" to the measurement because it's MUCH easier to cut twice than it is to cut too much the first time and have to buy a new piece.

OOPS #2.....

Dammit! My original measurements were spot on..... The "breathing room" I gave myself is biting me in the ass.... WTF do I do now?

I've got the pump in the well and I've spent two nearly 5 minute "shifts" down here in this icy-cold muck trying to finagle the unit where it needs to go.

I went upstairs and stripped all the wet, freezing clothes off. Lips quivering and toes purple, I called my step-dad. Not really for any advice at this point... More out of solidarity than anything else. I knew there was nothing he could say, or do, and he's much to old to be trying the stupid stunt I was trying to pull off. It was just nice hearing a familiar voice at this point....

Okay.... My toes don't look so purple. I can't feel them, in fact, it doesn't even feel that cold in my house given the circumstances anymore.... "Wait!!! Isn't it ALWAYS cold in my house in winter!!!!".

Never mind that! Back down for the third try. This HAS to be the ONE. I don't know how much longer I can hold out!

Bare-foot, completely naked aside from my "Grinch Who Stole Christmas" boxers (No Joke!), I ventured in for one last Hail Mary pass!

Weird.... it's not at all cold down here anymore......

It be too far to call it "bath-water", but there is zero pain and the chills are gone. Don't think about it.... Your mind is clear of that now and seems solid otherwise. You know what needs to be done!

Somehow, with enough leverage I managed to finally get my too-long pipe in where it needed to go (I do appreciate a "that's what she said joke usually, but please spare me in these circumstances

)

Too early to celebrate now though. Sure, my electrical cord was hung up high, but I have no idea if this unit is faulty and I'll be fried the second I plug it in. I braced my entire body up against the wall and on the few spare inches of plastic lining by the corners that were clear of the water in what probably would have been a futile attempt to prevent me from electrocuting myself, and I plugged Her in.......

and.....

I'm still alive! Was my first thought.... My second thought was hearing the hum of a motor working and seeing some slight action of the surface of the water. Before I had a chance to celebrate, I realized my third abysmal thought.....

Somewhere in the confusion and hysteria, I had "lost" the circular, "silver" clamp to firmly affix the rubber "T" under the back-flow to the PVC. Not only that, but I'd also "lost" my screwdriver in the shuffle, so I couldn't really do anything if I still had it. For all I knew, both of those items could be buried underneath the concrete block I put under the new sump.

I can't think about that negative bullshit now. Progress has been made and a job needs to be done. Take care of what you can, and worry about other things when your calendar is freed up for it.....

There I crouched, doing as best as I could to keep my fingers and toes out of that icy water for 15 minutes, naked except for my boxers, as I struggled to wrap my frozen hand around that rubber seal and let the machine do it's work.

When it finally became too much to bear, I dried off and went up to my "smoking room" the warmest 3'x4' room in my house in the attic and turned on my space heater. I called my step-dad and told him about my minor victory.

Since we weren't celebrating anything yet really, I should have been done with that conversation a long time earlier, especially since I didn't even know if the "bond" would hold without the clamp (for all I knew, it had shaken free from the rubber and was spewing water upwards at the bottom of my 1st floor joists at about 100MPH). I just wanted to keep talking to a real friend for a few minutes longer in a nice warm place, even knowing what was ahead of me.

Finally, our conversation was done and I knew what I needed to do....

Back into the abyss...

First thing I notice before I even get wet? The water level in the living area seems just a little lower.... YAY! Upon going into the crawl I discover the well is half empty! It still chugs along when the float is at the top and water spews out of the weak seal, but in less than 30 minutes my crawl is not flooded anymore!

I pressed my luck and reached in the well and even found the ring clamp. discovering it was made to never come apart, I realized I'd have to undo the assembly, put it back on and then put the unit back in before tightening it. This proved WAY easier to do when not crouching in freezing water.

So.... sump's working... water is slowly being cleared out.

Unfortunately, I did such a good job of "weatherproofing" "living space" that it's not properly draining back into the crawl, so I'll have to mop that up by hand tomorrow, assuming I'm not dying of Pneumonia by then. (At least it's good to know that I weatherproofed it so good that had I been paying attention that NONE of this would have happened if I had paid a little more attention in the last 24 hours or had a back up sump-pump, assuming it didn't fail too).

I stupidly had half empty gallons of top-shelf Benjamin Moore paint and my power tools down there. I removed them after the fact and really hope they're still good. The two bags of mixable joint compound and concrete are toast. Fortunately I did have the foresight to lift my unused elliptical machine on a pallet, and it seems that the water didn't get high enough to damage the window A/C unit my parents gave me last year.

Aside from that, I was probably just 2 hours away from having to replace my water heater and 8 hours away from having to replace my washer and dryer....

Welcome to my life.... paying for nearly 600 sq feet of unfinished "livable space" in property taxes in my home. I haven't even been here for 2 years and I've already experienced my first flood.

The damage was minimal. If I'm lucky, only 400 bucks at best. If this had gone unnoticed for another 24 hours, I surely would have lost at least another 400 for a water heater and the pain in the ass of removing the old one and asking my step-dad to give me a ride with the new one.

I'm keeping WARM tonight..... I usually have my thermostat at 64 on the 2nd floor. I closed both vents in the bedroom, so that's only for the bathroom and the hall. It's usually about 55 on the first floor and about 48 on the second floor when it's this cold outside.

I kicked it up 2 degrees, and I'll be sleeping under plenty of blankets with a gallon of water by my side to keep my hydrated.

Honestly, I feel invigorated now. I feel even more pumped then I usually do when I'm not sick. The funny thing, my temperature is normal now too.

Maybe fixing a mid-winter sump-pump crisis is a "fix-all" for any winter malady?

Let them try to use that argument....

Property taxes are for "piece of mind", above anything else. For most people, piece of mind has to do with the status quo and how they stack up against each other.

I'm doing my best here to NEVER have to ask for government benefits while working a single-income middle wage job.

Being in my position, it SHOULD be easy without a mortgage. In the late 1990's, early 2000's it would have been.

Today, I can't save any money. Not only do I have 9k less in my retirement (which was 3/5ths of what I had at the beginning of 2012), but I got taxed on it by feds and state. My car insurance in February for 6 months will be more than half of what I make this month with my cut hours and the 2 days I had to call off (and would have called off anyways with the flood).

$300 income in Feb. after taxes.
-
$200 6 month (bare bones) car insurance.
-
$60 cell phone.
-
$50 cable internet (NO cable TV)
-
$45 Water/Trash
-
$200 Gas/Electric (and a house that's just barely "warm" enough so the pipes don't freeze on the coldest nights).

= -$255 just on regular bills (not including the 1/12 figuring for property taxes and property insurance)

I'm glad I have money in the bank.......

Otherwise, my food would be on CapitalOne this month.....

The rate things are going, in a year I won't be able to make that statement without a better job.

Credit scares the SHIT out of me.....

Not only the idea of being, myself, "in somebody's pocket", but not being able to pay that debt back and forcing it on all of you through increased prices we're all paying to help pay for all of the other "deadbeats"....

Most people my age didn't live through any "real" wars here... They don't have any horror stories.

I won't submit for a second that what I went through today was even close to what real war heroes who got spit on after Nam went through, but at least I can give them a story now that they'd laugh about because nobody my age ever has to go through any survival BS like that.

I won't even argue the fact that I have no kids and no burden to the community outside of keeping my place looking nice. I'm down with keeping the schools nice to keep the thug element out....

I just basically lived today, my worst nightmare about this house. Not only that, but it was on one of the 3 coldest days we've had so far this year, and I went into it with a 101 degree fever alone.

As I've always done in the past, I made it work. It's a temporary fix, and until the weather gets warmer I won't go back and make it all a "perfect" install, but now I know I NEED to spend a lot more money on a second well and a back-up sump pump to keep this from ever happening again.

The huge tax break I thought I had secured year-to-year with this house last year is already gone. The amount they want to tax me this year over last year trumps what it would cost to help keep this from ever happening again.

What if I had kids and they lived down in the supposed "3rd bedroom" during this?

This isn't 570 sq ft of "livable space". At best, it should be included on the property at the same tax rate as a garage......

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, February 1, 2013 5:38 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I understand it's a lot to digest.....

I do hope that I kept it "cinematic" enough to keep you involved....

My only sadness here is that I didn't properly convey the emotions I felt every step of the way properly and get you all on board....

I'm spending my time now in my personal intox/detox chamber....

It's about 90 degrees here, and has been for about 3 hours. And it feels SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD.......

I haven't been coughing like a lunatic since I've been here. In fact, I've talked to friends on the phone that don't even notice I'm sick....

This is a good thing..... I think I'll sleep here tonight. Summer hot temps and zero humidity is probably just what I need. It's nice to be able to give yourself the proper vacation....

Even if your sad little vacation is a 3 day romp in a 100 degree 3'x4' room to "sweat it out".....

FU for judging if you do....

It feels good.

Might be the only thing keeping me alive through the morning without medical help.....

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, February 1, 2013 6:32 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Actual...

Real World story you can chime in on....

Feel free to focus your right and left wing hate on matters out of our hands though.....

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, February 1, 2013 8:13 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Nevermind....

NO real human feelings here.

I didn't expect any.....

Enjoy whatever pro-this-or-that-gods allowed you to have your unfeeling life..

Enjoy it.

Show no sympathy....

White N's.....

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, February 1, 2013 8:28 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Wow...

Guess somewhow, your life today was worse.... I feel bad for ya doll....

Can't imagine a daily life worse than that.....

Go with it if you're afraid of getting punched for saying otherwise though.....

I don't blame you....

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, February 1, 2013 9:00 PM

JONGSSTRAW

Cures for what ails ya

NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 2, 2013 8:58 AM

BYTEMITE

My brother bought hundred year old house in July, against all of our recommendations and with a shoddy inspections job. Two weeks after he bought it, the swamp cooler broke, in august they had a sewage flood in the basement because a tree root had broken their line, sometime in September he discovered water damage to the roof that might cause it to collapse (but he's getting a second opinion- unwisely because we also saw the water damage). In November his furnaces broke, in December in 10 degree weather their sprinkler system in the back yard broke and because their backyard is higher than their house, their basement and garage flooded again.

At least he bought a 100 year old house instead of his stupid idea to buy a house in a subdivision built on a Superfund National Priorities List site, end up poisoned in five years because the state government okayed an unsafe cleanup level for lead and arsenic because Rio Tinto's a big business.

Of course, every time there was a crisis, my brother just couldn't cancel whatever party or movie they wanted to go to and just left it all a mess. He's been to some high end colleges and international student exchanges and he's hundreds of thousands in debt. He is very smart. And I also think sometimes he's a fucking moron.

Also Afghanistan and Iraq are real wars.

But glad you're doing better.

If you have public transportation where you live or you can carpool, I would sell your car, and maybe cancel your car insurance until you have a better income. I do not own a car, take public transportation or walk everywhere, cars at work are covered by a company policy. Just that little bit of savings can make a big difference.

Seem to recall you applied for an engineering job lately as well. Good luck with that.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 2, 2013 10:44 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Damn Jack, I got tired just reading of your endeavors.

Carry on.

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil." - Socrates

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 3, 2013 3:57 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Cures for what ails ya

]

If I was in the mood for Shakira on Friday night/Saturday morning, that surely would have been the cure. God knows "Whenever, Wherever" has been the answer to what relatively minor ailments I'd suffered in the past.

Though her breasts are small and humble, so you don't confuse them with mountains.......

She can do things with her belly that no girl I've ever been with can. Things that can easily make you.... lose.... track... of......

um...

yesh....

As I was saying.... isn't Shakira, like, the best!

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 3, 2013 6:19 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Ouch Byte....

100 year old house doesn't, in itself, mean a bad house, but it can mean a ton of trouble if you don't know enough about structure, plumbing and electric. My house is only 60 years old, but it's obviously not without it's share of problems as well. I didn't have a "professional" come in, but between my own knowledge, my step-dad and my friend's dad that I did a lot of rehab work with, and my own research, I felt safe investing here.

Had I not turned out to be one of the lowest property levels in the entire village, this never would have happened. Not only did I have the run-off from snow melting on my roof making this flood happen, but I'm sure by gravity and diffusion I have the continued onslaught of rainwater from my entire block falling into my crawlspace. I just never noticed it when the pump was doing what it was meant to do.

Hell... as bad as I want to cuss that old RIGID, made in China, P.O.S. for failing, it has probably pumped out 200,000 gallons of water from my basement without fail until Thursday/Friday.

The REAL SHITTY thing is that, because I was buying with cash, there was NO WAY for me to know that I was buying on an existing flood plane, let alone I had one of 5 houses rated as the "lowest" in the entire village. I didn't find that out until I befriended neighbors and found out from them how often this house floods and that I'm still on a flood plane.

If I had a mortgage, somehow the bank would have made me had flood insurance. But when researching taxes on properties (and to this day) my property has "NO" for the "Flood Plane" line on my tax statements. That means that I'm paying for land that is considered not on a flood plane, and so did every owner before me, even though they were all forced to pay for flood insurance because of their mortgages.

Honestly, there was NO way I could have known, and I did my due-diligence on every house I looked for. Hell... after having lived here almost a year, it took me nearly a month to get a written statement from the building commission in my village to prove it for tax purposes. Phone calls were being avoided. I actually had to show up one day and wait 3 hours in the waiting room for an offical, signed document to be released.

Now, what I've found, is that nobody at the Township/County level knows what to do with that information. They're all so used to dealing with people trying to "UP" the value of their property and get out of a flood plane, that they have no idea how to enter a devaluation into the system, even though they all agree I have the necessary documents to do so. I've been chasing ghosts for over a month now trying to get that done. Over 100 phone calls, many to the same people I've talked to with new information about what "can't" be done......

Public transport isn't an option..... It would cost more for me without any government benefits I'm already not privy to.

Most of my family lives at least 30 minutes away by car, which is including 3 bucks worth of tolls and is impossible here without depending on a ride....

I've just secured a relationship with a neighbor here tonight. I had a 4-door sedan "parked" by my stop sign for over 15 minutes until local traffic made them move today. Who knows what reason they were there?

This block is about to be much more represented....

No worries to you if you have no bad intentions....

No worries to me if you do.... No wife or kids to mourn over me if I step outside....

Consider me a pre-emptive Gran Turino.....

15 minutes without any reason to leave was a bad idea on our parts yesterday......

There is NO other reason to spend that time and then speed away at the first car to come down that road.....

Try it agaian tomorrow....

I dare you....

I f'king double dog dare you.....

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 3, 2013 6:22 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
Damn Jack, I got tired just reading of your endeavors.

Carry on.

Read the rest of my post to Byte... the last 3 paragraphs or more anyhow....

I don't think my "block" suspects it, but I think we're being cased......

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 3, 2013 6:25 PM

JONGSSTRAW

"She can do things with her belly that no girl I've ever been with can. Things that can easily make you.... lose.... track... of......

um...

yesh....

As I was saying.... isn't Shakira, like, the best! "

=================================================================

Oh yeah! Shakira, Shakira. She really shook it up in this one. And her mud crawl was something I hadn't seen since Kim Wilde's 'Cambodia' in 1981.

NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 3, 2013 7:48 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Oh 6IX! What a trial!!! I hope you're OK now!

A word of advice... shelving?

I know that cellars can flood, and sometimes the sump pump fails, so if you have anything important or expensive downstairs put it up on planks on concrete blocks if you have to.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 3, 2013 7:56 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh 6IX! What a trial!!! I hope you're OK now!

A word of advice... shelving?

I know that cellars can flood, and sometimes the sump pump fails, so if you have anything important or expensive downstairs put it up on planks on concrete blocks if you have to.

Nothing that can't be replaced doll....

Thanks for asking....

Also, nothing covered with flood insurance, since I don't have any....

Power tools, stupidly stored in this area, are my fault....

Just another reason why i shouldn't pay for property taxes for this space.....

If my power tools can't survive the wreckage, why should my theoretical 9 year old daughter be expected to???????

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, February 4, 2013 6:31 AM

BYTEMITE

You just compared a theoretical nine-year-old girl to power tools.

Somehow, I approve.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, February 4, 2013 7:04 AM

STORYMARK

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Actual...

Real World story you can chime in on....

Feel free to focus your right and left wing hate on matters out of our hands though.....

Couldn't have anything to do with your track record for discourse.

Nah, that couldn't be it...

Excuse me while I soak in all these sweet, sweet conservative tears.

"We will never have the elite, smart people on our side." -- Rick "Frothy" Santorum

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, February 4, 2013 8:29 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

6-ix

Coming from a place that has basements and floods, and having gone through a few dozen myself (mostly minor ones with a foot or less of water but also a couple of major ones with many feet of water) and having had to do the clean-up, repair, and replacement, I second that vote for cheap shelving. It will save you from most of the damage the vast majority of time. Also, I don't know what you paid for the new pump, but if you can get a gift from someone in your circle, a spare pump with tools, fittings and supplies like PVC glue, would also be handy - just in case. It seems like you are in a place where you HAVE to have it or face significant consequences.

BTW your last post sounds a little paranoid.

NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, February 4, 2013 3:42 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Wow, that sounds really hard Jack, with the fever and having to fix everything. It sounds like it all worked out, you thought on your feet and got the job done.

I hope you can find a job that is more to your liking and needs soon, I know your current place of employment has flaws, mainly you're not getting the money you need in order to do the things you want to do in life.

BTW: Most amazing thread name I've seen in a long time!

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 5, 2013 6:22 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Hi Ikki,

Thanks for the shelving idea (and thanks to those who posted it before as well).

That won't work here though. I've already got plenty of storage space in my attic and storage unit and 2 1/2 car garage. My problem here is, this is a tri-level house and the "basement" is supposed to be 100% livable (and as such, is taxed fully as if it were part of the rest of the living space).

I made a quick and dirty mock-up of my home so you can visualize it....

If you ever knew somebody with a house like this, the "basement" isn't really a basement. There is usually at least a bedroom and a bathroom and one "family room/TV room" down there.

Fortunately, I hadn't really done much to rehab anything down there after the initial remediation and mold-proofing of the existing structure, so nothing was lost, but had I done a full rehab I was probably only 30 minutes away from thousands of dollars of damage. Had there been any furniture down there, especially of the Target/Wal-Mart/IKEA variety, I would have had to haul it to the curb.

Not to mention, It's REALLY cold down there now. As you can see from the picture, the closest heating vents to the basement are on the ceiling of the 1st floor, and they're already pushing downward from a furnace in the attic 5 or 6 feet above them. Part of me wants to just "wall off" the basement from the rest of the house to save on the insane energy costs, but that wouldn't solve anything. That would just leave my basement completely without heat and the bursting pipes that would make last weeks tiny little flood a joke-fest compared to my own indoor Noah's Ark reenactment...

It's really crap right now. I keep the thermostat at 66 degrees on the 2nd floor, and I've closed off the 2 bedrooms up there and the vents so the rooms are ice-cold. The ONLY things that are 66 degrees are my only usable bathroom up there and the hallway. The first floor is around 58 degrees. The basement, which gets any residual heat by diffusion is in the low 50's. That's only because it's pretty warm today. Air temp. was under 50 degrees down there on friday when I swapped pumps.

I'm not bitching about my circumstances. I'm still young, and I'm not a stranger to dealing with a lot of crap most people don't have to. Sure... do I hope I never have to live through that particular trial again???? Of course. It does give me a great story for my upcoming union interview though when they ask me about "a difficult situation/problem I've encountered and how I handled it" though. Nah.... it's not that.... Wading through freezing waters to save my house or spending 2 weeks removing toxic mold on my own as the steepest price I paid for getting such a bargain are things I've become accustomed to over the years. My best work has always been done in GIANT, EXPLOSIVE SPURTS.... and then I just kind of fizzle out and relax until the next big event happens.

My only gripe is, given that this basement is prone to floods, I've actually lived through one now, and there is no way somebody from the state could tell me they'd be close to comfortable sleeping in a 50 degree basement with no heat that I should be paying for that 570 sq feet as "livable space".

In Indiana, at least, the basement is just tacked onto your 1st floor sq footage in a tri-level home. My tax-record sq footage is for 1,635 sq feet. My neighbor across the street has a brick 2 story house with a full basement he doesn't get charged for. He's also not on a FEMA flood plane either.

He doesn't have to pay for his basement. I'm not even asked NOT to be charged for my basement. I just want that 570 sq feet to be charged at the much lower rate that a garage or storage locker would be charged at.

I'm doing the best I can here to keep this property from dying to the elements like a lot of the houses foreclosed on that I saw first hand in Crook County, IL in my property search. My neighbors were happy as hell when I came in and saved this property. When I had the taxes reduced to 1,110 last year, I was confident I could continue to make ends meet until another job came around. Nearly a year later, I've discovered that even with that tax reduction I will not be able to keep this up for much longer than 2 years without more pay without paying for heat and groceries on "Capital One". The fact that they're raising my taxes back to 2000 bucks this year, combined with the fact that I'll be paying about 180 bucks more for social security/medicare out of my paycheck this year only ensures me about 8 months less time to get something better.

I'm far from dire straights, but really.... is "This" the American dream?

No mortgage, no wife or dependents, no child support.... In 2013, a part-time minimum wage job isn't enough to at least survive???? Hell... my property taxes alone will be more than 1/4 of the money I make this year, and that's before income taxes, sales taxes, heat, water, electricity and trash pick up.

It makes me almost want to take my manager's advice and hate myself after taking advantage of an older, lonely woman. Granted I got an ill taste in my mouth about that since I witnessed my mom do that when I was like 7 years old and he ended up beating her one night (although she put up one hell of a fight)... but in the end I know I'd just be using her even though I would not ever raise a hand to her. I never got beat as a kid either.... sometimes emotional abuse and neglect can hurt just as much as a punch in the face. I can't do that....

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 5, 2013 6:50 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Hey Riona!

Actually, it wasn't really that hard at all!

The whole damn thing in retrospect is all rather surreal to me. 2 or three days ago, I told my brother the same thing and said that the only reason I knew it actually happened and that it wasn't a dream is because my old, rusty RIGID POS pump is sitting at the foot of my basement stairs and there was still water everywhere. Now that all of the water is gone, there's no moldy smell, and I was able to do laundry without wearing flippers on my feet this morning, that ol' sump I haven't carted to the curb is my only tangible evidence that anything bad even happened.

Today I was fever free. I got down there and mopped up the rest of the water. In only 3-4 days most of it was gone except for a few problem spots (which I now know about). There was only about 3 gallons of water left in that basement, and it was all clean. There's ZERO smell down there. It seems my Indiana Jones heroics saved the day in the nick of time and it only cost the small price of an extended fever and what hopefully is nothing more than a pneumonia scare. Knock on wood, but I should be 100% by Friday. :)

Thanks for the well wishing on the job front. I got some good news today. I was expecting nothing less, but I secured an interview for the union in late march based off of my test results, just as I did last year.

Last year..... 54 out of the top 300 for HVAC in 2 years, and they only accepted 30.

This year..... 54 should get me in, even if it's the "Building Trades" side of things, even in this down economy. That's because they have a much higher turn-over rate year-to-year and generally "dumber" people apply to that side.

In the end, I'd be a lot less happier with my job if that's the side I have to do, but I've seen what happens to people without a decent wage, both with and without a house to call their own. You won't hear me bitching either way.

There's no telling what my test scores were the last 2 years unless I get in for legality purposes, but I'm confident that my test score was higher this year after all that extra studying cause I knew what they'd be asking me. Now all I have to do is keep my nerves in check at the interview and convince them that I've outgrown my "stupid kid phase" and I'm ready to move on to the next chapter of my life. I'll also let them know that if they somehow pass me up again this year, I'll be back to take the HVAC test again next year after spending the next 12 months stocking shelves and wasting my talents.

Don't mind me though, if my temples are just another year greyer when I make my 2014 return.....

HEHE... Glad you liked the title Riona.

Much love,
~6

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
Wow, that sounds really hard Jack, with the fever and having to fix everything. It sounds like it all worked out, you thought on your feet and got the job done.

I hope you can find a job that is more to your liking and needs soon, I know your current place of employment has flaws, mainly you're not getting the money you need in order to do the things you want to do in life.

BTW: Most amazing thread name I've seen in a long time!

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 12, 2013 10:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Still sick today....

13 straight days.... that's a lot for somebody who is rarely physically ill....

Even though the illness didn't point to the flu before, I spent 2 straight days puking my guts out before today. I suppose I'm making up for lost time and getting some Karma jabs since my last major illness was my first bought with Strep thought 7 years ago.

Nose doesn't smell. Lungs barely work. Breathing is a chore I used to take for granted.....

It's far too early to tell now, as I've always been bad at self-diagnosis's, but I wonder if this is actually something serious this time around........

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 13, 2013 3:43 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Hopefully whatever it is will run its course and you'll be as good as new, or at least as good as you were before you got sick anyhow.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 13, 2013 5:38 PM

BYTEMITE

Sounds like pneumonia, Jack.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 13, 2013 8:35 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Byte might be right. I know you don't have insurance, which probably means you won't want to go to the doctor to get checked out, but keep a close eye on it because pneumonia can be dangerous, even for younger people. The fact that you smoke doesn't bode well for you either in regards to resporatory ailments. Keep an eye on it and I hope you get better soon.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, February 14, 2013 7:32 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Yeah, thanks. R & B :)

Pneumonia was my biggest worry while being down in that cold water. Good news it seems to be getting better every day or so. I'm just not used to something holding on this long. Working last night was a lot easier than the 3 nights I worked last week. Getting there was just as hard, but once I got into it and built up a sweat I didn't really feel sick at all.

Hoping that by next week this is all nothing more than a bad memory and a good story to tell the interviewers about how I handled an emergency situation when they ask.

All I have to do now is figure out a way to really make that long story short and keep all the vital parts in there.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

YOUR OPTIONS

SHARE THREAD

NEW POSTS TODAY

USER

POST DATE