Got the dryer to work, but given that it was submerged, we weren’t sure how long we’d have; used the washer, but only with the dog pee pads – when we tried it with clothes, found out it wasn’t really washing and didn’t spin at all.  So Thursday saw me at hh gregg, trying to buy the simplest washer and dryer on the market.  Which turns out to be not so simple.  I really wanted a wringer washer, but the only source was for the Amish and completely off the grid folks (I’m not really the plunger and laundry tub type) and were priced at $949 with $175 freight.

When I told the salesman what I was looking for, he said I was just like his mother, no bells and whistles, etc.  Only trouble – he was 63!  Flood work is aging.  The Maytag machines I was replacing weren’t that old, but the new ones have no agitator and the first eight pages of the washer instruction manual contain warnings (if you do not use the child lock, a child could open the top, climb in, be trapped and suffocate).  But I skipped all those…

They have machines that talk to each other (did you see what she put in there to clean?  Has she no shame?).   Since I line dry most of the year, would the dryer have to go on robotic anti-depressants because the washer kept promising loads that never arrived?  Too much drama already in my life, thankyouverymuch.

Settled on the Samsung pair pictured because they were on sale, had a ComEd instant rebate and … they were available.  Never discount the availability factor!

It’s weird because the washer doesn’t look or work anything like the more familiar washer: The tub rotates around a few times (like a dog turning and turning), then clicks and some water comes in.  It also takes an ungodly amount of time if you let it handle things on its own (heavy-duty setting takes well over an hour).  Now I’m learning to just ignore those settings and use the timed feature.  Normally it wouldn’t matter to me, but with 158 loads of laundry, I’ll be dead before I reach that last load.  It does clean very, very well and there’s no dripping clothes.

Backyard as of this morning (shot through bathroom window). We’ve removed some of the can & jar items from the food pile and brought them in for cleaning. That’s the topic of another post!

This next shot is of the street, which shows that no garbage has been picked up. A couple of trucks have come by, but after one house (not this block), they’re filled and disappear. I can’t really blame the Village for this because there are only so many trucks available, given that they are also handling regular garbage pickups in other communities.  It also may be a way to allow scavengers to remove heavy metal items first.

This photo was sent by one of DH’s co-workers – it’s looking south on Rte 53 from the Burlington train overpass.

I’ve seen lawn people cutting grass in the pouring rain wearing ponchos (’cause no work = no pay), but I have never seen this before:  Guy cutting the grass next door, stopping every few feet to remove flood debris!  And if you think they didn’t know there was a flood, the lawn service is headquartered at the end of the block.

Also of note:  Olive oil makes for a perfectly adequate fire starter – but as long as the fire burns you’re hungry.

Hot water is a thing of beauty.  Unfortunately, the washer crapped out and I figure the dryer won’t want to remain without its domestic partner.  That huge pile of off-season and new-for-the-next-few-years clothes will mold and rot outside if we don’t get both appliances ASAP.  Even then it’s dicey.

Since everything other than the washer and dryer and some shelving units has been removed, DH and friend are going to power-wash the entire basement today, after first using a shop vac to remove all the debris you don’t want going down the sump pump well.  I’ll have to hit up a couple of appliance stores to see who has what in stock.  Need a new refrigerator for the kitchen, too.  I’d like a new dishwasher now, since the old one fried and it’s full of dirty dishes, but washer/dryer is critical.  Laundromat had no change in the machine and Jewel was out of rolls of quarters!  Each of those large machines costs 22 quarters to wash – about 75¢ to a buck to dry.

And no, it’s not about covering my sewer damage claim, but in response to my original call to the agent’s office on Monday…After first trying to tell me it’s a flood claim through FEMA, I set the woman completely straight about things. And don’t get me wrong, she was a very, very nice person who obviously wasn’t aware of the facts of the matter.

Apparently the agent’s office emailed the agency owner on Monday. She’s on vacation in Hawaii and hasn’t gotten back to them yet. The office sent another email today. My position on all this? If I had been insuring people in this area for many years and something so catastrophic happened to my policyholders, I would have cut short my vacation without waiting for any emails from my office and taken the first plane back to the mainland. Whether of not I could have been more effective there or here isn’t the point. You make a statement that hey! Just because you paid me all those premiums throughout the years that enabled my husband and me to drive very expensive cars and take vacations in Hawaii, you have no right to anything other than my part-time staff.

Maybe I should have just saved the money by insuring with 1-800-SUCKERS…

View from the back towards the front. You can see the clothing pile to the front left. Scary to see this. Here’s some more pix.

Here’s something that really upsets me: All the saved artwork, school papers and pictures from FirstBorn and PITA. There’s no possible replacement for these…
All my cases of Splenda and Truvia and Purvia, etc. – gone. My Bounce and Snuggle dryer sheets – gone. All my Nissan noodles – gone. All my Dreamfields and Ronzoni pasta – gone.
Remember the cat litter from Dominicks?

Stopped to talk to the neighbor two doors over.  She has whole crews tearing out stuff and removing the sewer-damaged  –  estimates that 70% of her family’s personal items are gone.  Started talking about insurance.  Guess who her company is?  State Farm.  Guess who her agent is?  Same as mine!  So she has sewer backup coverage, but I don’t?  ’cause two doors away is a whole different grid or something?

Oh, and before you say that it’s a new policy with no history, she’s lived here probably 30 years and they had a sewer backup claim in 2008.  Now, since the extensive flood control work wasn’t in place at that time, State Farm couldn’t have known that the work would be performed at some point in the future.  So what’s the difference between our two claims, other than the seven years separating them?  I’m apparently the red-headed stepchild.

I don’t know what the squiggle of light is in this picture, but it came on the others, too.  Maybe a ghost?

For all those who have clamored over the years for pictures of my stockpile – – here it is…kinda, sorta.

And this is not even from the other side of the basement – the Food Side!

Before I start this post, I want to take a moment to thank all of you who either commented or sent personal emails offering cleaning supplies, stockpile items, food and even shelter.  I’m taking a short cut and thanking you all publicly here, because, well, there’s too many to address personally.  Again, all the best wishes, etc. mean so much – sometimes you feel like there’s nothing that can be done and are paralyzed.  I now understand how easy it is to allow yourself to do nothing because it’s all so overwhelming that you wonder where you are even supposed to start.  So you start with washing dishes in the sink and washing out a toilet and putting in toilet paper.  baby steps.

Today DH and a family friend are clearing a path from the basement stairs (well, after clearing the stairs) to the laundry room so that the hot water heater can be delivered and installed tomorrow morning (ihopeihopeihope).  After that they move over to the food stockpile side and start tossing.  A sad, sad day for me.  I’ll take pictures of the stuff as it’s tossed and counted.

Since we got gas back yesterday, I have reverted to semi-pioneer status: large pot of water gets heated until boiling, then poured into basin and mixed with our double-taps of cold water (to put a positive spin on things).  Fill and heat again and use the hot water as a rinse bucket. Kitchen by the sink stinks like pee. Since I have to remove all the tile in there anyway (it’s pulling up and the pee smell concentrates there, I’m thinking of bamboo flooring. I’d like to keep the original oak boards, but honestly don’t know how much the floor will go back down after it dries.   With the damp and cold weather, it will take a few weeks, easy.  Side note:  DH was yelling about the dogs peeing all over the living and dining rooms – there were puddles in a few places. I was amazed because I hadn’t seen any dogs in there!  Put the dogs away and cleaned up the puddles. Puddles came back and we realized that it was the wood giving up water from between the boards! So that’s more fun to deal with.  But again, we have a few of those oil heaters and a huge fire going. I know that fires don’t dry out the air like forced air furnaces, but right now it’s the only game in town.

And to think that one week ago I was posting and planning huge Almay deals at the Friends & Family Day event at Walgreens…

You’d be amazed at what comes through a flood like this: Vacuum-sealed coffee is a gift from the Gods! I was sure the cans would be fine, but the others? So far, so good, but I haven’t actually walked on that side – this was just stuff that I could reach from the safety of the stairs.

It still feels weird to toss everything into the garbage and not separate into recycling bins. I told PITA that when anyone asked what she did for Earth Day, she could say she took all the recycling and threw it into the garbage.  She hit me.