Monday, August 18th: We returned from Alaska this morning at 2:30 am, not when we had planned to arrive, but our 7:00 am flight out of Sea-Tac was delayed 3 hours yesterday because lightning struck the south section of the airport, knocking out all electronic controls and bringing outbound and inbound flights to a standstill. When the flight finally got off, we were too late to get our connection from Salt Lake to Butte, Montana. So, we had a nine-hour wait in the airport until the next flight to Butte left . . . at 9:45 PM. It's still a 2 hour drive home from that airport; we finally got home about 2:00 am.
We noticed our guard lights were off, and sure enough, we had no power.
Vigilante Electric, when working out our way, had cut the power lines while we were gone--apparently the second or third day we were gone, unfortunately, because we've been gone 9 days. When we opened the door, the smell of rotten meat, mold, mildew--you name it--greeted us. And, we had no power (which meant we also had no water from our well). We took a flashlight into the kitchen and discovered a pool of blood and rotten meat juices from the fridge and freezer spreading out into the kitchen over the hardwood floor, and, of course, seeping into the subflooring, too.
The power was fixed at 7:00 AM today, but the problems are far from over. When the line was cut, our phone line was fried. I had my computer unplugged, thankfully, but when I plugged it back in, it was dead anyway--I'm cursed, I think. It's at the computer repair place as I type, but the prognosis isn't good. It doesn't really matter at this point because my DSL line is fried, too. I've called the phone company, but it will be a few days before they can get to us. (Some days I really miss living in Austin.)
So, no internet/computer/phone (except cell phone) until I am back at work this week on Thursday. I'm using my daughter's computer in town at the moment--had to come in to bring my computer, which has all my lesson plans and other info on it. I was supposed to go back to work today, but instead, we're dealing with damaged flooring, a brand-new but stinky fridge and freezer, the phone company, the tile guy, AND with the Kinetico people. Tile guy? Kinetico? Oh, yes--did I mention that the day before we left, the water softener blew up, literally, so I now have 50 pounds of salt and other stuff all over the slate floor of the mud room and into the service closets there. The water also leaked into the bedroom closet and saturated the carpet on that wall. The tile guy is coming to assess the water/salt damage to the subflooring in that area.
I wanna go back to the ship!!! But no, I have to go back and wait for workmen at the house . . . our BRAND NEW house that we moved into just 3 weeks ago. In Montana, when you live 45 miles from any town, getting people out to fix things can take weeks, not days, so if someone says he'll try to get by soon, you can't afford to decide if soon means "quickly" or means "when I get to your area." For example, the lower oven of my new range won't stay closed, so "The Appliance Doctor" was assigned the warranty work on it. He called and said, "Well, I don't have any other calls out your way, so it will be a month or so before I get to you." I don't want to miss anyone who might show up, so I'm headed back to Horse Prairie.
Could anything else go wrong? Why, yes, it could.
We'd gotten earnest money and a contract on my mother-in-law's house in Texas, but while we were gone, the buyers backed out and want their earnest money refunded. No reason--just got cold feet. Aargh!
By the way, the cruise was great. We've done it before, so this time we just took it easy and enjoyed the scenery and the people. Good thing we got a lot of rest . . .
Carolyn