Let's play Good News / Bad News

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I envy you being able to use the NetiPot! I always get an ear infection from those, but I hear so many get a lot of relief. XLear nose spray does help me a bit. Trying to find a hack to make it myself, since it is basically distilled water, Xylitol, and GSE.
Oh bummer. My only frustration with using my netipot is that I can't really go anywhere that day because I never know when water will come streaming out of my nose. Now I do this weird thing where I walk around the house with a tissue in hand and bend over as though I'm getting something off the bottom shelf at the grocery store. Ask me how I know to do this... 🤣 🤣
 
Tons of snow this year...

Good news: No basement flooding at either house when all the snow finally melted.

? news (good/bad): Elevated water table in the aquifers under town - good for the town wells; problematic when we get rainstorms.

Bad news: We had daily rain for 6 or 7 days in a row, ending with a full day of non-stop rain, which rose the water tables so high that it had nowhere to go, but into people's basements. Yesterday we had 5-6 inches of standing water in our basement.

Bad news: Hubby was at work when I discovered the furnace was making quite a racket & went to look and saw water just below the top of the bottom step into the basement & things floating. Of course, I turned off the furnace (from upstairs) & made sure to wait for the fan to stop (no way to turn it off from upstairs) while set to auto. It took a few minutes, but once the furnace stopped trying to produce heat, the fan did stop.

Bad news: My dominant hand is useless to do anything to help with the basement dry out, so Hubby had to do it all himself when he got home from work. He had to go buy a pump & some hoses & clamps & pumped water out through a basement window out to the driveway & far down toward the street. We have a long drive, so it was a long hose, since we don't want the water just soaking back into the ground near the foundation.

Good news: A few hours into this process, more than 80% of the water was gone from the basement.

Bad news: It started seeping back in because the water table is still high and the storm drains are overloaded, so there's nowhere for the water to go until the water table levels decrease and storm drains drain more water away from our neighborhood. Hubby's back was killing him from sweeping water toward the area where the pump sat (the lowest point in that basement room.) I know how that goes: I've swept my fair share of water toward drains or open doors in my lifetime (in this and other houses after flooding incidents.

Good news: Overnight the water didn't rise above what it was when I went to sleep (about 3 inches deep.) So the Hubs started up again pumping water out of the basement. When the plumbing company opened up, I called for a service call to assess the water heater (pilot light & burner unit flooded) & the furnace (same, plus the motor & fan & anything else possibly damaged.)

Good news: Plumber with great sense of humor, and of course, the necessary skills, came out within an hour. Water heater burner unit needed cleaning up & drying out & he got that done pretty quickly, lit the pilot light & we now have hot water again. Furnace was a bigger, more time consuming fix, but it's done now too. The motor needed drying out; same with the fan; needed a new non-soggy filter; needed a new circuit board. The fan had thrown water all over inside and burned out the circuit board. Fairly straightforward fix and now we heat again.

Bad news: Water keeps on coming. Also there are three distinct rooms, one with a long narrow closet, so basically 4 rooms in our basement, all with their own high & low points; the water level in each room can remain independent of the other two room because of the high points between the doorways. So basically, lakes in each room independent of the others when the water remains below those high points, which happens because....

Bad news: There are floor drains in only two of these rooms.

Good/bad news: The water heater is in one room with a floor drain. The furnace is in the other room with a floor drain. Why is this good or bad? During flooding, water rises from below ground up through the drains. When is it good? When the humidifier in the AC needs to drain water, there is a drain where the hose drains toward; same for water heater in other room. Of course this is only good when the drains are draining water away, not when they are spewing water into the basement.

Bad news: These floor drains appear (at this point in Hubby's estimation) not to be connected to each other in any way. The floor is solid concrete, of course, so we can't really check on this. How does he come to this conclusion? When he runs the pump in one room, it has no effect on the other room that has a drain. Water is seeping up through the drains (which drain to a layer of rocks/pebbles below the house.) So periodically, he moves the pump between the two rooms to pump out water to keep it below the level of the water heater bottom. Then back again to do the same in the room with the furnace.

Bad news: Hubby doesn't think he can go to work tomorrow unless the water stays below an inch or so; low enough as to not put out the water heater pilot light & flood the burner unit. He believes he will have to babysit the pump all night long because it has to be unplugged when the water gets too low & plugged back in when the water level starts rising again; like about every 15 minutes. I told him I could do that & had to prove it by bringing out my spare (for travel) surge protector with an on/off switch & plugging the power cord in with that, because I can't unplug or plug the two cords (the pump's power cord & long extension cord) together any other way (my hand is in a cast & I can't grip them well enough without use of my thumb or pinky finger). But I can flip an on/off switch. Of course he is still worried I won't do it well enough while he sleeps or while he is at work. So, unless he is willing to trade shifts with me, he plans to be up all night & not go to work again tomorrow so he can babysit the pump, until the water table decreases.

Good news: He is planning to go buy a wet/dry vac so he can suck up water in the other rooms, carry it and dump that water near the pump, so he (or I) won't have to keep moving the pump between rooms.

Bad news: I do not know if I can manage emptying a wet/dry vac. with my dominant hand (and thumb & pinky finger) out of commission. I will only know after he buys it and we test that out. I had one years ago, but got rid of it years before we moved out here.

Bad news: He doesn't seem interested in learning the speed of water seepage gauged to depth. IMO, that would give us a reasonable estimation of exactly how often the pump has to be turned back on, which would mean neither of us would have to sit on the basement steps babysitting the pump continually.

Good news: Once he gets so exhausted, he has to sleep, I can do that & maybe come up with a schedule and use my kitchen timer or phone alarms to set up a timely schedule to use going forward.

Good news: Forecast says no rain for the next 10 days.
 
Oh that just stinks. Glad your first one is soon, but sorry the second is so far out.
Thanks! Our government has gone against the pharmaceutical guidelines for the recommended 21 - 28 days for administrating the second dose. They want as many people to be able to get the first shot. They screwed up big time buying the vaccine from day one. But one shot is better then none. Hopefully we will get more soon and they will go with the recommendation as there is no studies done to see how effective the second shot will be after the 4 month period.
 
The bad news is half the new chicks I ordered arrived at the feed store dead.
They lost 95 of a hundred easter eggers and can't get any more of this breed.
Good news is our other local feed store is getting some in this Friday and had some unspoken for that I signed up for
Hopefully these and my barred rocks arrive ok!
 
Good news: The water has stopped rising in our basement as of sometime yesterday. Hubby & I alternated shifts running the pump & the wet/dry vac & emptying the portable de-humidifier in each of the prospective rooms. He stayed home on my birthday to deal with it mostly on his own, but went to work yesterday & today. We actually have some dry spots on some parts of the floors; puddles on others as the water seeps away from the high spots.

Bad news: The huge portable industrial sized fan we use for drying out giant water messes like this (and other purposes) isn't working. (It was working fine when we used it at the other house a few months ago to dry out the floor after that basement flooded.) The motor or the wiring must have got wet & hasn't dried yet, or worse. Water was spraying everywhere a few times in this process (heater fan; pump/hose connection). Hope Hubby can fix it. I draped the bottom of the rug that covers the stair steps into the basement over a bucket so the remaining water will drip off of it & plugged the fan in to hurry the process.

Good news: We do have a back up fan. I'll bring the box fan in from the garage; maybe it'll help dry out the motor on the industrial fan as well as the rug & floors. We'll probably be running fans for at least a week down there.

Good news: I will get out of the house today; hooray! Son will pick me up & we're going to get his Driver's License, Auto registration, Voter registration & all that sort of thing. It'll be good to get out for a few hours! And I can do a couple of errands I haven't been able to do since I haven't been able to drive for a week now. (I wanted to take a short test drive on the weekend, then the basement flooded. - maybe this weekend.)
 
Good News: The industrial sized fan wasn't not working. I just couldn't find (forgot where it was located) the on/off switch because the basement is so dark in that room. It's working and doing a great job of drying out the hard-to-reach still-wet areas in that basement room.

Bad News: When I switched the smaller Box Fan to run on high overnight, I actually switched it to the off position, so that room went almost 24 hours without fan assist drying. Again, it's the lighting down there, I need ti start carrying a flashlight with me. 😏

Good News: Immediately after starting back up on the 5-HTP Plus supplement, I started sleeping through the night, not even waking up to use the toilet until at least 6+ hours of sleep (as opposed to ~4 hours as per usual). Two nights in a row - fabulous!

Bad News: I fell asleep on the couch, took a 3 hour nap & woke up before midnight, now I am staying awake on computer rather than going to bed and getting that full night's sleep. I am tired, though. Maybe I'll eat some oatmeal & cheddar for the tryptophan and go to bed.
 
Good News...I am fully vaccinated.
Bad News...It’s the dreaded J&J vaccine and I have a blood clotting disorder.. 😬

Oh dang. From what I'm reading the risk is near miniscule and if I have read this correctly the blood clot issue with the J&J vac is actually lower than when compared to the general population. Also have to consider this-COVID is far far more likely to cause blood clots. If you were to pick getting the vax or getting COVID from a blood clot risk point of view, you're better off with the vax. That said, if you're on birth control that might be a compounding issue. Be aware, but I wouldn't be too worried ATM. And of course speak with your medical professional if you've got any concerns as they're more likely to be able to fully assess the risks-a lot of what's in the media is pure blind garbage without context right now.
 
Good news: I bit the bullet and ordered a bunch of fragrances and other things I really wanted from soap kitchen last payday.
Bad news: it's still not here a week later (still shows as pending on their website) and I'm running out of FO! So I basically can make soap as long as I'm ok with it smelling like rhubarb...
Good news: their support guy was very helpful and was able to track down my package and let me know it was shipped a few days ago.
Bad news: it was returned back to their office by the courier shortly before I called and he doesn't know why...
Good(ish) news: he said he'll ship it back out to me immediately, fingers crossed it gets here soon or I'm going to crack and pay double the price for EO from the chemist again.
 
Bad news: I missed signing up for a free tree from Lowe’s (through their spring event)

Good news: the apple trees I ordered in November will be here soon so I still get to start planning my garden (after 6 years). Tracking says they’re in town but I don’t know if they deliver Saturdays. Monday evening the latest
 
Good news: I bit the bullet and ordered a bunch of fragrances and other things I really wanted from soap kitchen last payday.
Bad news: it's still not here a week later (still shows as pending on their website) and I'm running out of FO! So I basically can make soap as long as I'm ok with it smelling like rhubarb...
Good news: their support guy was very helpful and was able to track down my package and let me know it was shipped a few days ago.
Bad news: it was returned back to their office by the courier shortly before I called and he doesn't know why...
Good(ish) news: he said he'll ship it back out to me immediately, fingers crossed it gets here soon or I'm going to crack and pay double the price for EO from the chemist again.
Good news: I now know why they were sent back be the courier last time.
Bad news: it's because there was an extra €50 of customs to be paid :eek:
Good news: I believe it's now finally on its way to me so soon I will have all the smells!
Bad news: I already cracked and bought some EO just to avoid going cold turkey...
 
Good news: I finally found a cardamom essential oil that I felt I could afford ($25 CAD for 30ml), from a Canadian company, even.
Bad news: The bottle smashed sometime in transit.
Good news: Amazon refunded it immediately, as well as the cost of the other items in the package (pinto beans, and, ironically, a pound of ground cardamom).
Even better news: The porch smells lovely, since that's where I've left the smashed bottle for now...
 
Good News: Yesterday my cast was removed and my dominant hand was FREE for the first time since April 7th surgery.
Stitches were removed from finger & thumb.

I have a pin in my thumb with a head that makes it look like a giant dressmaker's pin sticking out of my skin. It had to be pulled back about a quarter of an inch.

Good News: That didn't hurt hardly at all; I barely felt it.

Bad News: I have to wear a cast for 2 more weeks! No therapy until sometime after that.

Good News: My pinky finger is free this time, but with Kitty Baby tenderly nibbling on my fingers to get me to wake up & feed her, I will have to wear a bandage to cover the incision site a bit longer.
 

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