Heh. My insurance company rep is just loving me right now. A week ago, I hit a pothole in my Pacifica and blew up the passenger's front end. (As my driving coach commented after reading the report, "It looked like you rolled the car a couple of times, stood it up on it's nose and then beat it with a hammer." Umm... I know I was a little speedy, but I have no idea how the car suffered the damage that it did. Seriously. The pothole is a bitch, but damn. $2500, and SERIOUS repairs, including a new wheel, rim, shock, a-arm, and tie rods. Among other things. Damn. And I also got some bumper damage done, when some moron hit my rear end at a grocery store, and didn't have the courtesy to leave a note (thanks, asshole). Another $1100. With a $500 deductible on that, too. So, $1000 to get my almost-paid-off Pacfica back to new. And the sucker will be paid off in April of next year, so, for $1000? Eh. The pothole thing pisses me off. The asshole who rear-ended me pisses me off even more. You hit me, and it costs ME $500? Eh. There are bigger things in the world to get upset about.

Like why my insurance agent is going to love me even more.

About 2pm today, I notice a sewer smell in our downstairs. I mentioned it to my husband, and we both speculated that it was related to the work that the water company has been doing on the main pipeline into our development. No worries.

We take the doggies out for a walk, and meet the husband's business partner, who meets us at the house. They smell the smell, run some water in the downstairs, and then do some guy stuff (playing guitar) for a while while I putter around the house. About a half hour later, I decide to go down to the basement to get some stuff to start dinner.

And I hear water running. I kind of think that Gary might have left the water running to expunge any sewer gas, but I figure I might want to check the bathroom, just in case.... Because it sounds pretty harsh.

I walk out of the hallway and into the bathroom, and there is an inch of water on the floor, coming out of the pipes from the toilet. I try to turn off the water, but can't find the right valve, so I instead cry out, "Guys, we've got a problem. A SERIOUS problem." Gary and Charlie come rushing down (very admirable, given that they are both gimps! *grin) and Gary gets the water shut off, and then the two of them start mobilizing the water-removal process; I grab the shop-vac and let the boys start to remove the water, while I call the disaster kleen-up people, the insurance company (because we are likely to have lost our hardwood floor downstairs) an a plumber, in case it is us, and not because of development issues.

As of right now, we've got people sucking water out of the floor, we've got plumbers shocked at how far backed up our plumbing is, and I'm just figuring that my budget for the month has been blown out of the water. We will probably get out of it okay (there are some geologic issues that could have lead to a sewer pipe break) but still. EEESH.