So, mom calls me this morning at 4:00...

[Larry Ashcraft]

"Water, there's water everywhere! I've called 911."

We could hear water running when she called, so we threw some clothes on and went over there. The sheriff''s deputies had arrived and managed to find the main shutoff. I know one of them. He says "Hi Larry", I answer back "Hi Mark" and then realize after they left that his name is Randy, his brother is Mark. Oh well, I'll apologize next time I see him.

Anyway, there was water all over the half bath, which is in the center of the house. Carpets are soaked going into the den and hallway, but doesn't seem to be any real damage. We go to the basement, where there is a large room full of antiques, and the floor is squishy wet. A portion of the ceiling had fallen on my dad's roll-top desk and another part was about to fall on a walnut bed.

We called a water damage specialist and he showed up in about an hour. Meanwhile, we're trying to soak up some of the water and at least dry the furniture. The water damage guy, Ryan, gets there with his giant vacuum and dries the upstairs in just a few minutes, and then goes around back and starts working on the basement.

I find out that the cold water supply line to the sink has broken at one end (why it did it at 4:00 am I have no idea). I closed that valve and turned the main supply back on. Then we went downstairs and started moving furniture out. Rocking chairs, stacking bookcases, tables, chests of drawers all came out. A section of carpet was cut out and the roll-top and the organ were put on dry cement. Four of us lifted the roll-top and carried it a few feet to the cement, where we discovered it was on casters.

So, 3.5 hours later, we kind of had things under control. Sandy and my sister stayed over there while I came to work.

Good news is, the insurance will pay for everything, bad news is it will take 2-3 days for everything to dry out so re-construction can start. Water had seeped under the wall in the half-bath into the full bath, and Ryan says there is no way to dry the laminate floor in the full bath. It will need replaced, as will the carpet and ceiling in the basement.

So, how's your day going so far?

[Declaration Day]

Today was good.  Broken pipes suck, but isn't 911 a bit of an overreaction?

[Larry Ashcraft]

but isn't 911 a bit of an overreaction?

For a 76 year old recently widowed lady, in a HUGE house, all by herself, with water running into the basement?

Not at all.

The deputies got the main water valve shut off.  Another ten minutes and the damage could have been much worse.

What do think we pay these guys for anyway?

[Declaration Day]

but isn't 911 a bit of an overreaction?

For a 76 year old recently widowed lady, in a HUGE house, all by herself, with water running into the basement?

Not at all.

The deputies got the main water valve shut off.  Another ten minutes and the damage could have been much worse.

What do think we pay these guys for anyway?

I understand, especially if she's been accustomed to having a husband around most of her life to take care of such things.  I still think 911 is for more pressing matters, but she probably didn't know what else to do.  Get all the damage fixed and write down the phone number for the local police front desk, and tape it by her phone. 

[Perd Hapley]

Let's just be glad she wasn't tazed, beaten, arrested, strip-searched and held in custody.   

[Brad Johnson]

Four of us lifted the roll-top and carried it a few feet to the cement, where we discovered it was on casters.

*snicker*

Brad

[wooderson]

Calling the polizei front desk won't necessarily do any good. The times I've tried to reach them on matters I didn't think merited emergency services, they told me to call 911.

[Larry Ashcraft]

Just got home from mom's...

They removed the floors in both bathrooms. The carpet, paneling and ceiling are gone from the basement. There's about ten giant fans and a giant dehumidifier running in the basement and about six fans in the half-bath. There's a giant pile of trash in the backyard.

Mom's hanging in there. She said yesterday she felt like just sitting down and crying, but instead, she decided there wasn't much she could do except let the pros do their thing. So she just got a cup of coffee and sat and read the newpaper.

Very nice weather here today, so we have books and pictures spread all over drying in the sun, or spread out on the bed in one of the spare bedrooms. There was a cabinet next to the freezer I had forgotten about that was full of old photographs and books, nothing valuable, but still. There was some pictures there I had never seen, dad and grandad with deer draped over the hood of dad's 1939 Ford, and dad and his older sister standing next to dad's 1936 Ford.

And DD, I still disagree with your opinion.  911 is for emergencies, and this certainly qualified.  Dispatch might have been just as fast, but what difference does it make whether you bother Dispatch or the 911 operators?  The rural fire station is about one mile away, so obviously the operator sent whoever was closer, and that happened to be a sheriff's patrol car.

[Perd Hapley]

Larry, I understand that your sympathies are with your mother.  However, you must admit that she was wrong to call 911.  After all, they have people to harass and taze, and she deliberately got in the way of that.  I feel sorry for your mother's predicament, but I also feel the pain of an elderly grandmother somewhere in your area, that was NOT pulled out of her home, tazed, and arrested, because the emergency personnel that should have been doing that were instead redirected to your mother's home.

And besides, real Americans don't rely on Big Govt. to solve their problems.  Your Mom must be a liberal. 

[Tecumseh]

Larry, I understand that your sympathies are with your mother.  However, you must admit that she was wrong to call 911.  After all, they have people to harass and taze, and she deliberately got in the way of that.  I feel sorry for your mother's predicament, but I also feel the pain of an elderly grandmother somewhere in your area, that was NOT pulled out of her home, tazed, and arrested, because the emergency personnel that should have been doing that were instead redirected to your mother's home.

And besides, real Americans don't rely on Big Govt. to solve their problems.  Your Mom must be a liberal. 

  My thoughts as well.

[Bogie]

Guys, the question at hand...

Lawdog would have rolled on it, and cheerfully helped. Ergo, it passes the test.

NOW, for your mother.
 
Tell her to get offa her butt, and commence to making some nice cookies or something for the cleanup guys. And some for the po-po who helped out. And some for you. Especially some for you. That is her role in this situation, and she's slacking off. Hop to it !
 

[Perd Hapley]

Well, that's kinda mean, Bogie.  But it would take her mind off things. 

Tecumseh, you realize I was kidding, right? 

[Declaration Day]

  The rural fire station is about one mile away,

I think this is why my opinion differs from yours.  I live in the city, where the 911 system is constantly clogged with non-emergency calls.  Circumstances in your mother's area may be different. 

[Larry Ashcraft]

I think this is why my opinion differs from yours.  I live in the city, where the 911 system is constantly clogged with non-emergency calls.  Circumstances in your mother's area may be different.

Exactly.  Mom probably woke up the 911 operator.

Tell her to get offa her butt, and commence to making some nice cookies or something for the cleanup guys. And some for the po-po who helped out. And some for you. Especially some for you. That is her role in this situation, and she's slacking off. Hop to it !

Actually, mom was busy making coffee for the cleanup guys, and offering them breakfast.  Then she had a bunch of us over for stew today.

Hard to have a conversation with all those fans going though.

Tecumseh, you realize I was kidding, right?

I hope so.  The rest of us got it.

[Tecumseh]

Well, that's kinda mean, Bogie.  But it would take her mind off things. 

Tecumseh, you realize I was kidding, right? 

  Are you kidding?

[AmbulanceDriver]

Ahem....

Since I work in a 911 center (and definitely *not* a rural 911 center), I think I'm entitled to share my *professional* opinion.

Your mom done right. 

Water damage can be just as destructive as fire.  When we get calls for water flooding (like what your mom had) they will dispatch the closest truck or engine (albeit sans light & sirens).  Why fire apparatus instead of the police?  They've got water vacuums and can start removing water, and know where to look for the water shutoff...   

[RocketMan]

Ahem....

Since I work in a 911 center (and definitely *not* a rural 911 center), I think I'm entitled to share my *professional* opinion.

Your mom done right. 

Water damage can be just as destructive as fire.  When we get calls for water flooding (like what your mom had) they will dispatch the closest truck or engine (albeit sans light & sirens).  Why fire apparatus instead of the police?  They've got water vacuums and can start removing water, and know where to look for the water shutoff...  

There 'ya go.  Sounds like AD settled it.

[Perd Hapley]

Is this what we've come to?  Jack-booted thugs entering the homes of elderly citizens, at whim, and shutting off basic utilities?  Will we take this laying down?  Or will we vote for a presidential candidate that will stop the systematic rape of our civil liberties? 

Read about my candidate. 

[AmbulanceDriver]

Read about my candidate. 

#@_$#+! it!  Now my brain hurts.  I swear I dropped 5 IQ points reading his welcome page alone. 

[Perd Hapley]

 

[Declaration Day]

Read about my candidate. 

Your candidate seems to vehemently oppose punctuation and grammar.

[Perd Hapley]

That web-page has shown up here before.  I think it was some months ago.  I've been waiting for a good opportunity to bring him back.   

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

Fistful, you fiend.

I am a member of the United State Army Military Intelligence Academy Camp Bullis San Antonio Texas at the University of Texas ROTC School of Religion as the Director, the developer of  a new United States Army Military Intelligence Buddhist religion for the United States Army

From the 'Reasons for Candidacy' page:

To Prove I have solved every crime in the world as it happens from zero to start to finish for every crime done in Business and Commerce Intelligence National and International.

I really hope this is a joke.

Otherwise, I may have to vote for him. I mean, in the arena of protest votes, this would beat a slew of votes for Ron Paul. That he would develop a US Army Military Intelligence Buddhist Religion is just badass.

[Perd Hapley]

The stuff is so random, I wonder if perhaps it was written by some sort of program that generated random phrases from a certain group of key words.   

[Tallpine]

The stuff is so random, I wonder if perhaps it was written by some sort of program that generated random phrases from a certain group of key words. 

That's what I think everytime I hear Obama speak