I am sorry I haven't been around to read everyone's posts and to see what you all have been up do.

I am so exhausted. I flooded sometime Friday night and I am still cleaning up.

Garbage day is tomorrow and my curb is lined up with bags and a few boxes. I just hope the garbage men pick everything up. They can be picky but Dale, my policeman friend across the street used to be a garbage man so he said he will ask them to take everything.

I pumped water out for every 20 minutes for 48 hours before the city workers finally came and cleaned out the trap (tree roots) They had a hard time finding the clean out and they used Dale's pump like I did to flush some raw sewage water out of the "hole" in the floor and I warned the guy about the hose coming off since it happened to me 3 times and I got sewer water in my face and eyes and one time I got drenched from head to toe and I couldn't take a shower! LOL I heard a yell and the city worker asked me for a towel. He got the worst of the worst dirty sewage water in his face and mouth. He said I had warned him about the pump. We had a couple of laughs and I promised him I didn't have any communicable diseases. LOL Poor guy.

On Sunday while I was still pumping water every 20 minutes my friend Donna stopped over to clean my eavestroughs for me. They really needed cleaning as they hadn't been cleaned for a couple of years. I had a 5 foot chestnut tree growing in the back eavestrough.

OMG we never laughed so much. Donna is not afraid of heights so she went up on the ladder. I have my Dad's old extension ladder so we used that. This ladder is so heavy - not like the light aluminum ones today. So here we were - 2 fifty something women trying to manouver this ladder around. We were laughing so much at one point trying to get the ladder up to the roof that it almost went through my front windows. Donna said "did you think years ago when we first met in Grade 9 that we would be doing this 35 years later. LOLOL Donna did a great job cleaning them out even though she did fling some of the goop into my face and onto my arms. LOL She then went out and brought us McDonalds.

I gave myself a little time off on Tuesday to relax a bit before I started clean up again. I did laundry from 10:00 am to 3:30 am and washed everything twice in hot water. Some stuff I had to toss out because of contamination.

I try really hard to keep my electricity useage down - lately I have been only using 125 Kwh a month but now I can imagine how much I have used with the pump and the washing and drying and the electric eel and the fans. I even gave up using my air condioner because it is an energy hog.

None of my brothers called to check on how I was doing but I guess I really didn't expect them too. I was a little upset by their lack of caring though. This was a big job for 1 person even though my friends and neighbours helped me. Most of the crap I tossed out wasn't even mine - it was stuff that was in the house when my family lived here.

I had called my SIL this morning to see how she was doing since she just had major back surgery. She asked how things were going and I told her there was a big stove cardboard box that was filled with stuff but I wasn't going near it because of the spiders and webs that were around it. I am deathly afraid of spiders. Silly I know but I can't help it. LOL I didn't know what was stored in the box but just new that it needed to be tossed out because it had gotten wet. Doreen said she would call my brother at the store and send him over. LOL I wasn't going to hold my breath but surprise less than an hour later David showed up bearing banana boxes, a cooked chicken, fresh rolls and a pasta salad. Wasn't that nice.

David went down the basement in his dress clothes and he started to empty the box. All kinds of metal things like an old fridge freezer door, door to a dryer, all kinds of crap that one of my brothers tossed into the box over 25 years ago and just left it. I hauled lots of trash up the stairs and we put the metal stuff in a pile since Dale's brother is coming over to take all the metal junk off my hands and he can make some money on it. I just want it gone.

David and I went through the basement talking about memories from when we were kids and how much time we spend down there doing homework or watching Dad work at something. David even showed me some of his first wood jigsaw pieces that were still hanging down near the work bench. I told David if there was anything he wanted from the bench he could have it. He reached up and pulled a cardboard tube down from the rafters and inside was my Grandfather's papers. There were giant certificates from the Order of Masons from 1923. I don't know anything about the Masons except to know my Grandpa reached the Highest Degree. I will contact the Masons to see if they would like these papers back.

After David left I removed a lot more stuff. Cheryl next door came over and she helped me clean out china from a metal cabinet and another metal cabinet held some of my Mom's fancy clothes from the 1960's. They were in good condition but musty smelling. We bagged all the clothes and put them to the curb.

While I was doing that I got a long distance phone call from my insurance company. I had called them in the morning to get some advice on how to disinfect the basement. I didn't want to make a claim because I didn't have the $500 for the deductable. The woman said I should make a claim because I did have a Sewer Backup policy and that the basement should be cleaned properly and checked out. So the long distance phone call was the Claims person and they said that because I did most of the work, cleanup myself and with the help of friends that they were going to wiave the deductable and send over a Construction Contractor for clean up. I have a $20,000 limit. She said to make sure I claim everything I lost even the boots I was wearing to clean up the basement. LOL Good thing because the boots I wore were my good winter boots that cost me almost $150 and now the waterproofing is gone because of being soaked through.

I couldn't believe it - I wasn't even going to use my insurance. I might have to get a sump pump put in which will use a good chuck of that money. I just want the basement disinfected and dried. I really didn't care about the things I had to throw out except my clothes. If I had lost my washer and dryer then I would have used the insurance. I will have to get my furnace inspected becuase I don't know if that will work or not and don't want to be surprised in the fall.

Wednesday night we had severe storms with lots of rain all night long and I kept getting up to check on the basement. I could hear water running so when I pushed back the grate in the floor I could see the water moving through the drain which was wonderful to see. LOL

I am off to bed, I can hardly move. I will have to be up early just because I don't know what time Dale's brother is coming to remove the metal cabinets and other metal junk. I hope it is before the construction guys show up.

Thanks for listening. I am so happy the insurance came through for me even though I didn't ask them to. The mess was too much for this girl to handle alone.

Anne