How bizarre

Today (well, i'm finishing this a week later, but began it the day it occurred) was, in some ways, one of those days that began last night, and at the end of which you prepare to fall into bed praying to hit the reset button for the next day. Still, it was fraught with examples of God's benevolence and mercy, and provision. So today was not a perfect day. It could have, however, been much worse.

It began when i, feeling the guilt that resulted from watching my male cat, the evil Dr. No (real name Manoah) first lick a piece of ceiling wood and then walk through sewage water. The floor was strewn with tile pieces from the ceiling, the sink was littered with the same interspersed with raw sewage- in short, the room was disgusting. i decided not to clean it last night (the job of course falling to me, bubs being weirded out by the sewage and not exactly being the cleaning sort anyway, and mom having been told before that i would do cleaning, and thinking that she had already done it), thinking that instead i would go today to graduate school, come home and clean the kitchen, and then go to a friend's house for a hot shower. (Oh do i lust over a hot shower right now.) i did not, in short, have the motivation to tackle the kitchen last night. Guilt, however, would not allow me to leave my cats in the mess. A purposeful jail break was engineered, then, with full approbation of the warden.

i look at the cats being out at night with trepidation. This is, most likely, largely due to their recurring night time proclivities when liberated from their cage- catching things. Now, this is a laudable thing for a cat. However, i am irrationally afraid of dead animals, and loathe watching the death in action of a creature at the hands of another creature. The last time these two had been out at night, i had awoken to D-rock playing with a dead mouse on top of me while i slept. By the grace of God, i had handled it quite well, i must say. Only, however, by the grace of God (well everything is only by the grace of God).

So last night, i anxiously fear what might go squeak in the night. D curls up with me, and i think that perhaps it will be alright. Mom comes downstairs, her feet torturing her, and starts med-seeking. i text ms. texas (my middle sister) to call mom, and she and her boyfriend manage to shake her out of her pain induced funk. i fall asleep.........

.........and awaken some hours later to No coming down, D jumping to see him, and the distinct sounds of mouse claiming commencing. No had caught one, close to two am. i put the cats in the entryway, just so i could get some sleep (after calling my brother to deal with the situation, which i again, only by the grace of God, handled quite well).

At shortly before seven this morning, i heard alarming noises from the foyer. Afraid for their safety, i got out of bed to check on the cats. i found my brother's golf clubs knocked down (there's something he shan't learn), let them out (how much trouble could they get into in the half an hour before i had to get up), and went back to bed. Approximately ten minutes later- sure enough noah's caught another one. i manage to handle it quite well (thank God!!!!!!!!!!) and trap it myself under a shovel, and holler for bubs. He comes downstairs, but the mouse is gone. He goes back upstairs to bed, and No catches another (or the same) mouse almost immediately. This time bubs gets it outside, by my sleep is ruined.

S., my friend with whom i ride to school, is sick. So i, not wanting to bring the sickness home to mom (or catch it myself) decide to drive myself. i might have thought better. In the next few hours:

-i fall down the stairs.
-i realize that when i fell down the stairs i ripped a hole in my pants and underwear, and have been walking around like that (including outside).
-i realize the road is not pleasant at the beginning for driving to school.
-i drop my coffee before i get to drink any of it.

i arrive at school flustered, grateful to God for having arrived well, and had a good drive there, but in a sort of "what a week it's been" mood.

The next several hours are wonderful. i adore my new professor. He's young, dynamic, very into social justice, not very into standard educational practices, and- oh the icing- a hasher. (There's a hashing group nearby too!!) He ran a classroom activity which was brilliant. He told us we had to decide between two grading options:
1. He grades very stringently. This means only one or two people will receive an a, several will receive a b, and a few (those who do not do as well as the others) are guaranteed to receive a c.
2. He grades very laxly. There is much less stress, and most people will receive a b. However, this means that it is much less likely (though possible) that anyone receives a c or an a.
After we discussed this (i argued that it was unfair, and that we ought to be given what we earned) he revealed that it was an exercise. See, that is how people look at society. Some are okay with a system whereby a few exceptional people reap all the rewards, many are in the middle, and some live in below average means. The argument is that the people on the top deserve to be on the top, and those at the bottom could always work their way up. Others feel that a system where everyone is brought up to a basic level of existence is better, where very few people realize either extreme prosperity, or extreme want. It's an interesting lesson, and was a very effective illustration.

On my way home from school, however, i had a flat tire. i couldn't get the old tire off and called bubs to come, who was also unable to remove the old tire at first. One man helped by giving us a bottle of free-all solution and adding his strength to bubs'. When two large men cannot pull off a tire with lubricant on it, there is a problem. Eventually, when that good samaritan left and another took his place, the tire came free. This didn't happen, however, until after a sledgehammer was used.

Here's the benefit to this, and that which i'm very grateful to God for!!!!!!!!!

1.)It happened just before i lost cell reception, so i could call bubs.
2.)It happened during daylight (at first).
3.)It happened near a gas station (so i wasn't stuck changing a tire on the side of the road).
4.)It happened on a rural road (so i wasn't stuck sitting on the edge of a highway).
5.)The tire did come off, and people did help.

After arriving home, i cleaned the kitchen.

The subsequent week has been much better, thank and praise God for all!!!!!!!!!

Sitting in the rain, water on the brain, got a hole in your boat.....

Our plumber installed a sprinkler system in our kitchen. Now, this isn't literally true, but it is the crack i made yesterday when, after two days of thawing and patching our basement pipes the reinstalation of water into the pipes resulted in multile jets of water raining down from the kitchen ceiling. Prior to this time, the only leak from this ceiling had been the dripping sewage from the leaking drainage pipe. That had been dripping onto our dishrack and sink for a few days, and i had already attempted twice to fix it. The first time we did not yet realize that it was sewage, the second time there was little to no doubt. Of course by that time we had a sink full of brown snow and the icy sheen of frozen water and waste conmingled. Too late, i tried to extract our spaghetti strainer from its clutches. Alas, it was no good.

We have not had water properly for several days now. Ironically, the waste water emerging from the ceiling was the only water running in the building. On Tuesday night, the night before mom's long awaited Dr.'s appointment, bubs and traveled into the frozen basement to attempt to thaw the pipes with a hair dryer. He swore, and started freaking out. "i just want to burn this place down." "No you can't bubs, we don't have any insurance." These are the sort of conversations we sometimes have. What spawned this surge in profanity????? The pipes were not only frozen, but completely disconnected in two spots, which was threatening to pull the entire assembly down. Oh, and to add insult to injury- the water meter was smashed.

Then came me calling the plumber, who graciously took pity and came the next day. Day one of two where i skipped my internship. He installed a baseboard heater to our wall, to try and keep the temperature down there at least above freezing, and set to work.......

....... and came back the next day with help to continue. They fixed all the pipes downstairs, turned the water on, and caused a small geyser to erupt from the back of our washing machine. They fixed this and went to test it out.......

.......which saw me standing as water rained from my ceiling, clutching the electric heater i tried to save from the initial waves. "Where's the safest place for me to hold this heater," i queried of our plumber's assistant, as we stood in the water (dripping even through the blades of our ceiling fan) and stared in a shocked sort of wonder. "Unplug it," he logically suggested. Not my most intelligent moment.

The plumber then agreed to come back the next day to try and fix these problems and restore water to the upstairs. He capped the upstairs for the night, so we would at least have water downstairs. He asked me if i really cared about our ceiling. i said, "no." What i cared about was water. Laundry. Showers. Doing my hair in any style but the "i have washed it in over a week and wasn't assidous enough in the beginning about combing it, so it's a tangled gnarled mess, but if i do this tightly and coiled enough maybe you won't notice" bun. The bucket of human excrement remained on the kitchen sink, as it was still being dripped into.

Today i went to work, and my brother handled the plumber. It's still not done, though not through fault of his really. We only lost, maybe two square feet of ceiling. He restored hot water to the upstairs. However, he believes we have a frozen mass in the waste pipe still. We can't, he says, do much until it thaws. When it does, i (bubs claims he cannot stand on the sink, so the duty falls to me) get to climb back atop the sink, scrape off the old putty, waste, tape, and previous patching materials, and try to epoxy or bondo the waste pipe, if we can find the hole. Then i get to use glue to attach a new pvc pipe peace to the cold water pipe, located behind the frozen waste pipe, so we have both kinds of water in the upstairs. The plumber says if we get stuck we can call him.

Today bubs already gooped up a large crack in the downstairs bathroom sink drain. It appears we broke a lot in our house this frozen season. Le sigh. i ought, tonight, to go clean the kitchen- the plaster, ceiling bits, excrement, etc. Leaving fecal matter in your kitchen for too long is probably not a good idea. It, however, does not appeal to me, especially when i can't shower after doing it right now. Maybe i'll beg a friend to use their shower tomorrow, and do the cleaning right before that.

This leads to the great homeowner's loan debate, which perhaps i'll explain tomorrow. Though my computer lost internet ability after it's recent virus debacle (thank and praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!! that it recovered completely apparently otherwise) so i get on the internet less often.

Until then, i remain

stinkily, oily, and itchily yours-

-une.

Oh the pirate radio told us what was goin' down.

Life. Well, life gets busy. Currently we are going through another waterless spell. This is winter in rural Pennsylvania- snow, ice, cold, and frozen pipes. Ours tend to last. Sigh. However, the water was dripping out of the ceiling earlier.
A few weeks ago, it might have been humorous for a random person to see, speaking of ceilings. Standing atop the sink (so as to reach the hole), in my high heeled boots (my sneakers broke), in my winter jacket (the stove heat doesn't necessarily reach the kitchen), pulling the yellow plastic off the hole in the ceiling. "Bubs, how did you fix this last time." "With duct tape and an aluminum can." Thank night we fixed it with duct tape and window plastic.
i took that same plastic and covered the cellar windows not that long ago. My middle sister told me that she and daddy thought that made a place look white trash. The way the house looks right now, i figure we already look white trash. So why not insulate the trash.

Currently

On Guilt and Lies

Guilt and lies have become old familiar friends. Well guilt has always been a familiar friend, but perhaps never before has it been so justified. Lies are a new addition; i've decided that lying is less of a sin when one is lying to a woman for her own good, a woman for whom the acceptance of the truth and coping mechanisms are compromised. Sometimes, i even lie about my guilt.
Take today for instance. i'm on a vacation with friends for New Years. i called home to ask my brother if i could stay another day. He told me i could, in such a way that he knew would make me feel guilty if i did. So i will probably go home. Sigh.