Holy Cat

Aagggh the weekend time for nice relaxing activities. We slept in, went to run some errands this morning including the grocery store. The weather is warming up. When we got home from the grocery store and where unloading some of our neighbors came out, and as often happens in our cul-de-sac we starting shooting the breeze.

A while later we went back to putting the groceries away. I noticed that we left the door from the garage to the house open. We normally don't do this because of our dogs, but since we had not let them out of their room yet did not think anything of it.

About an hour later as we were eating lunch one of out dogs goes ballistic and charging up the stairs. Not the normal hey I am barking at something walking by. My wife goes up after him and the next thing I hear is there is a cat in the house. It was one of the moments, where it takes you a second to process what was just said, because it is so out of place.

I went upstairs as well and sure enough on one of the window ledges what a cat, scared out of its mind with our dog going crazy. I had my wife corral the dogs back to their room. I reached my hand out to let the cat sniff me to make sure it was friendly, and it decided on a human was a much better place than on the window ledge. As soon at it landed on my shoulders I realized it was not declawed. Decided this was the opportune time to walk outside and extract the cat from my shoulders.

Crisis over, cat out of the house, minor scratches. Looking back on what just happened it is very amusing. A little bummed, because I was wearing my I love Solaris t-shirt and it got the worst of it.

Proper Job

Almost a year ago our sanitation district notified us that they where doubling our rates, because the sewer pipes to our neighborhood are 30 years old and and they had to be replaced. The project was supposed to take 3 months. Like all good public works projects they failed to mention to everyone that the 3 month deadline was based on using a new technique where they force the pipes through the ground instead of digging everything up. Oooopppss! Of course the new technique did not work, and 8 months later after digging everything up we have new sewer pipes.

On my way home from the airport on Tuesday there was a large puddle in the road about a half mile from my house. The taxi driver thought it was weird because it was a perfectly dry day, and there was no running water into the puddle. As we hit the puddle it became obvious from the smell that it was sewage. Glad it was not my car <grin>.

Yesterday a large sink whole opened up and has closed the street in both directions. There are only 2 streets in and out of my neighborhood. You can imagine the disaster this has had on traffic. The good news is that I work from home. The sink hole is in-between me and my gym though. I will have to do my workout from home today as well. Norditrack here I come.

The real rub here is that the pipe obviously worked just fine for the last 30 years. The new pipe can't be 60 days old. The problem is obviously from an improper install. And like my grandfather always said. Don't bother starting a job unless you are planning on finishing it properly.

They have currently brought in special trucks, and I mean a whole fleet of them, to catch and pump the sewage out of the system before it gets to the break. This of course begs the question who is going to pay for this fleet that is running 24x7 while the pipe is broken? Who is going to pay for the repairs to system? I willing to bet the sanitation district, and hence us the homeowners, get stuck with the bill and not the company that improperly installed the pipes!

And to end on a cheery note, at least we live far enough away from the break that we can't smell it. I guess the residences close to the break are having to deal with the smell as well!