This morning was not fun. At all. I was laying in bed a little after 7:00 am when the earthquake hit. The house shook for a good 5-7 seconds I would say and I was up and out of my bed before I truly knew what happened. Right away, my phone was buzzing with Greg on the line. He was in his office on the 4th floor of his building when the earthquake hit. He said his building was swaying and he was getting out of there!
Our house is cantilevered out a good 5 feet above our foundation so I have always had a slight fear that if an earthquake hit, the whole west side of our house would fall off. Not so, but when I went down to check the furnace room and make sure everything was okay, I saw a waterfall of water coming down the window in our spare bedroom. I called Greg back to tell him we had water pouring from the ceiling, and I heard Greg swear for the 2nd time in our marriage. He was already on his way. I called my Dad next to ask how to turn off our main water line, because there hadn't been much of a change after I turned off the water going into our house. I was in such a panic, that I couldn't understand him, but luckily Greg pulled into the driveway right when I was trying to figure everything out. I also got a call from my cute father-in-law who was also on his way over to help. Between Mark and Greg, the ceiling came apart in no time, and Greg was able to locate the leak. Luckily, April and Toby also came over to help. The leprechaun came 1 day late (unbeknownst to our little ones) and they were happy to munch on the chocolate coins while I ran around with my head cut off. It's amazing how many things you really can't do when you don't have any water in your house. Greg's sprinkler knowledge came in handy with him being able to locate the leak and replace the pipe.
We later realized that the leak caused by the earthquake may have actually been a blessing in disguise, believe it or not. Last June, Sof had this nasty cough that would not go away, and we could not figure out why. On a whim, I hung some moisture bags in her room and they filled up almost immediately, so her cough definitely came from a moisture problem. We did all we could to help, and her cough went away, but based on the leak and it's placement through her floor, we deducted that it was probably slowly leaking for a while, and the earthquake shook it just enough to send a rush of water down. As an experiment, I have hung another moisture bag up in her room and it took months to fill up - letting us know it was collecting the general moisture in the air, and she hasn't had a cough again. The earthquake was not ideal, but we were able to fix another problem from it.
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| I am not lying when I say a lot of water came down. We had to rip everything up and dry it for 3 days. It was not fun. |
The before ...
And after. Isn't the new pipe fancy? Greg did a great job!
While Greg fixed the pipe, the girls and I went to the park to pretend we didn't have a hole in our ceiling.
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| Only Claire would take her shoes off to play in the middle of March. |
I have since developed PTSD from the earthquake. Literally. I can't tell you how many times I have woke up hearing my heartbeat and mistaking it for an earthquake, or getting immediate fear from hearing a large truck drive up our street. Weekly people! It is not fun.
But, these funny Facebook quotes about COVID help me cope. Laughter is indeed the best medicine. Enjoy!
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