Aw... a vacation in California must be real nice right about now!

While my sister Lori, Todd, and Tony are in California on vacation right now, I am babysitting their house and their dog, Brewster (who snores by the way). I love her house. The decorations, the colors, the furniture, and the cable is very nice and I also enjoy getting up earlier every morning to take a 30 minute shower in their huge almost 6x6 shower!
Before they left, Lori told me that if it snows, then I could take Todd's truck to work, just in case I couldn't get out of the driveway in my car. Luckily (I guess) it hasn't snowed since they left *knock, knock*. But, it did reach a record high of about 62 degrees! Oh, and it was so nice, until all the snow became a ton of water, which led to a ton of mud, then it started to rain all day on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, I was really worried that I'd get stuck in the mud in her drive way or the driveway of Babe (Todd's uncle who watches Brewster during the day) so, I decided it wouldn't hurt if I took Todd's truck for the day, just in case, because I did NOT want to get stuck in the driveway and have to be late to work!
So, I headed to Babe's to drop off the dog and on my way out of his muddy driveway, I got stuck! I GOT STUCK IN A HUGE WORK TRUCK! Are you kidding me? How is this happening? Ha-ha. I was all dressed up in my nice work clothes too and it was actively raining and I really didn't want to deal with this, so I continued to try going back and forth, put it into drive, then reverse, drive, reverse, drive, reverse and of course, the truck wouldn't budge. Now, there was a switch that said "2H" "4H" and "4L" but I didn't know what that meant, and I didn't want to start messing with his truck and then brake something!
Finally, I got out of the truck into a few inches of mud and in the rain to access the situation. Yup, I was stuck. I thought about taking a picture for the post I knew I'd write, but figured I better focus on getting out and getting to work! The next door neighbor was on his way over (didn't speak English) and the lady across the street was on her way with this big board, telling me that they always get stuck. The guy came over and held up four fingers and asked me "Quatro"? I was thinking, um... yes, there are four wheels and yes, they are all in the mud... oh, wait, he's trying to ask if there's four wheel drive! "oh, I don't know!" I finally said to him. He hopped up in the truck and threw it into one of those H or L things and after spinning the back wheels and flinging mud about ten feet high and 15 to 20 feet back, he finally got the truck out of the mud! Yay! I was so thankful! What nice neighbors, huh?
I was so thankful! And of course I had to tell someone, right? So, I got on the phone and called my sister Shannon and started telling her the whole story, when all of a sudden, I looked in my rear view mirror, and guess what I saw? TRASH! Yes, trash appeared out of nowhere and was flying all over the place! (Apparently, it was the trash that was supposed to be taken to the dump and was forgotten.) So, since I was on the highway, I felt just terrible, and slowed way down to a crawl (I don't think there was much trash that actually flew out of the back, but I probably will do a little volunteering for trash pickup this summer!) What a morning, huh?
I sure had a great time telling all my co-workers about my morning adventure! And I'm actually glad I decided to take his truck that morning or else... well... let's just not think about that, okay?

This story's not quite over... yet.

I had to work until 7 p.m. that night and it was pouring down rain with high speed winds by the time I got off work. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees within minutes, too! I headed "home" to Lori's house and called Jason to come over so we could watch American Idol and eat Jimmie Johns. We were just about ready to eat and watch TV just before 8 p.m. when the lights flickered on and off and on and off and on and off, then just stayed off. Oh, great! Anyone got any guess as to what that means? Yeah... when the power goes out, the sump pump in the basement doesn't work, and if the sump pump in the basement doesn't work, the basement floods. I'm sure you all remember at least one of those posts that Lori wrote, right?
Well, I called Lori and Todd and they told me where the flashlight was, then I told Jason to go watch AI at home and that I'd be at his house in just a few minutes. Or so I thought! I then talked to Todd's sister, Lisa and she said she called the company and they told her the power would come back on around midnight, but Lori was worried that it would be too late. I went downstairs to check the sump pump and it was about 3/4 full already! So, she asked that I stay there and monitor it every 15 minutes. Then I checked it about 10 minutes later and the water level was going up almost about an inch or so every 10 minutes! So, we weren't sure if Lisa and her husband would be able to get the generator working in order to bring it over, so I started manually taking the water out of the hole. I started with the quart jars stored in the basement, then figured that would take forever, so I then started using the canning pot (you know the kind of pot that fits about 8 canning jars inside?). There's a sink in the basement, so I started filling the pot, taking it out of that room, up a stair, down a stair, and into the finished basement part to the end by the wall, where there's a sink and pouring it in there, (oh, and of course I had to also hold the flashlight so I could see where I was going! I started holding it in the same hand that was carrying the pot, then tried it under my chin, then finally held it like a clutch, under my arm pit). After about 3 or 4 of those pots, the water in the sink started to NOT go down the drain! I called Lori and she said I'd have to take the water up the stairs and pour it outside. There are only about 7 or so stairs until the landing where there's a door to the outside, but those stairs are a little tall, and after a few trips up, I figured, I needed something bigger than that pot!
I found a big white trash can and took that downstairs and started filling that up. Meanwhile, the hole is still filling up, not making a dent whatsoever, with all the water I'm taking out of it. Oh, and by the way, there was also a spider in there, and so I had to shine the light on the spider and then put my hand in the hole with a jar and take it out and pour that out! After about two of those, I got smart and just captured the swimming spider inside a jar with water and put it to the side, so I could really get some work done! Once I got the trash can full of water, I needed to take it up the stairs and pour it outside. Not easy! It was probably 100 pounds of water that I had to be really careful with so it didn't spill out and on everything! Then there aren't handles, so I had the tips of my fingers holding the 100 pound trash can filled with water and trying to haul it up the stairs (and still trying to hold that flashlight in between my arm and body!)! I felt like I was on the "biggest loser"! I had to take a deep breath, count to three then lift high enough to reach the top of the next step. Then do it all over again for the next one! Around the third or fourth step, I got so hot, sweaty, tired, and sore that I thought I wouldn't be able to do it! Thankfully, I was able to sike myself into it and made it to the top, just before Lisa and Ronnie showed up with the generator to hook it all up with! Oh, the luck...
After about an hour of trying to get the water out of that 4 feet deep hole, with only three inches to the top, the generator was hooked up and all was safe! I headed over to Jason's for the last hour of the show and then came back to the house. I tried to fall asleep on the couch until the power came on, but it wasn't too easy with the engine rumble of the generator, the high pitch beeping of the baby monitor (beeps when the power goes out as a safety feature) and the snoring dog in my arms! Finally, about a quarter 'til midnight the power came on!
With Todd's help over the phone, I got the generator turned off, the window shut, the sump pump plugged in, then I had to call back for Lori to tell me how to stop that annoying high pitched beeping of the baby monitor so I could go to bed! (oh, yeah, and I was paranoid all night that the baby monitor would start beeping again, which would mean the power went out, again, which would mean I would have to complete a rerun of the above events!)
Luckily, the power didn't go out again, the basement didn't flood, I got my work out in for the day, I didn't miss too much of American Idol, I got the cable and the Internet working again, and it hasn't rained in over 24-hours! Again, *knock, knock!*
I sure hope to be drama free for the next two and half more days!
(Hmmm... I wonder if I'd rather redo that day or take on four kids for a week again?)
Hope you're having fun, Lori and Todd! I miss you (and so does Brewster and your house!)!!!

And by the way, if I hadn't taken out all the water that I did, it would have flooded at least one section of the basement by the time we got the generator plugged in and then I would really have had a mess on my hands! I think it was a pretty good thing that I was staying here and not at my house, huh?
Oh, and now that it's all in the past, this DOES make a pretty good story to tell for years to come, doesn't it? LOL