Sign of the Times

I spent an hour yesterday writing a detailed account of our progress (???), only to have a wire wiggled somewhere and lost my Internet connection. No worries, just didn't close the window so I could upload when I was reconnected. Ha! Jim decided he had to cut power to half of the house, of course to MY half of the house, of course without telling me. Gone was my computer, along with my post, along with lights to scrap by, along with washer, dryer, dishwasher, stove and microwave. Um, kinda everything I generally do with my days and of course they all had to stay off until 10 last night. What's a gal to do? Can't watch TV cause everytime somebody walks in the house they have to check a score, the weather or catch up on MythBusters. Kicked out half a book of sudoku, took a 3 hour bath and cleaned the bathroom, geez, really productive day.

Kinda feeling like life around here could be read like "When You Give a Mouse a Cookie". Jim freaked on Monday evening. I had a talk with each of the boys on Tuesday. Jake took off on Wednesday (the storage area under the house had to be cleaned out for access to replace the sub-flooring on the second floor). Josh took a 3 hr lunch break to help (pissing Jake off cause big brother "took over"). Thursday (Thanksgiving), Josh popped up at 8am, ready to work, Jim wasn't quite as enthusiastic, neither were Jerry and Jake when they were rolled out of bed. The trash piles on the street continued to grow, along with piles in the back of "treasures". Jim was dumbstruck, this stuff was primarily my father's acquisitions and Jim had no clue how much there was or what it was. Cries of discovery came through the dining room floor all morning. Cries of horror at the thousands of dollars worth of tools ruined by floodwater (thanks again Katrina),cries of excitment at the old marble fireplace surrounds and the lighthouse beacon, cries of wonder at the 3 ft mound of nails rusted into a solid mass (they're guys, what can I say?). They biggest cry of all was when they were finishing up and Jim found signs of termite damage. Looks like the backside of the house was still standing only because of God's hand. Seriously, Jim says that it is a miracle that the side wall hadn't collapsed. So here we go, more issues to test my redneck's engineering skills. Giving the man his due, he did design and build a house from ground up when he was 17 and he has taught classes at LSU and he has worked up through the ranks of the industrial electrical/instrumentation world and next month steps into the VP poistion of a fair sized company BUT this is structural, literally the roof over our heads...a little worried here. LOL, guess I'm just gonna trust him, God kept the wall up for a reason and I prefer to believe he's right there with Jim as the prybars flash and then the hammer replaces. Just wish I didn't here so much moaning (the house) and cussin' (Jim).