DVS
A ghost from your dreams
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2002
- Posts
- 11,416
Yes, this is long, but I thought it was necessary. I hope you understand, once you read it.
Busy times at my house the last 24 hours. It all started when I woke up to a blood curdling scream from a cat. At the time I thought it was just a stray that was outside the window, which there was. Cats defend their territory with a lot of spunk and when a stray just comes by, they get all huffy. They get in such a state of mind that you can't even pick them up, because you will get scratched or bitten, too. That's just how cats are.
After everything had calmed down, my 7 month old kitten wasn't using his front leg. He didn't seem in pain, but the leg was just like it was dead. He wasn't using it at all. I found out he was in pain up by his shoulder and after a visit to the vet and X-rays, we found he had broken his leg. So, on top of not getting any unemployment money (a long story), I had to pay for surgery to fix his broken leg. That, along with all of the little extras of pills and shots and other surgery stuff, the bill was just over $1,600.
He's home now, but he can't move his leg much for 2 weeks so it will heal correctly. That means he has to almost always stay in a cage I had to buy, so he won't move around too much. That's going to be fun, when he gets to feeling better and wants to get out of the cage, but we need the leg to heal well. He's still a growing boy.
Well along the same time frame as all of this was going on, the water company decided to come along and replace all of the water meters on my side of the block. At 8:00 yesterday morning, I suddenly had no water. I went out there, and found him installing a new meter. That didn't bother me, and he said he would be done in a few minutes. But, before long, it was longer than a few minutes and I saw him move on to my neighbor's meter. I checked my water and still didn't have any. I looked out there and saw another truck from the water company so I guess he had trouble with my meter, and had to call in help so he could stay on schedule.
But, when the other truck left, I still didn't have any water. I walked down to the meter, and water was flowing out of the meter and down the street. It was coming out of the hole with so much force, that it looked like it would be sprouting up into the air if the metal cover hadn't been on the hole. So, I walked up to where the first guy had moved ahead a few houses and talked to him.
He told me he had trouble with my meter and a pipe end was corroded and he couldn't get the fitting to go on. I told him that the water was flowing down the street and he didn't know why that would be. He thought the other guy would have just called in a service for my house and have a crew come to fix the fitting.
He asked if I had any water and I said no. And, he had told me the fitting was on my side of the meter, so that told me that all of that water going down the street was being paid for by me. He was a subcontractor so he said I should contact the water company to tell them what was going on. I saw some more water company workers down the street, so I went to talk to them.
I explained what was going on, and one of them called in the call. The dispatcher replied that a call had already been scheduled. I told them I had no water, and didn't know why the meter had even been turned on, because all of the water going down the street was on my side of the meter and I was paying for it. They told me not to worry about that, because they would adjust my bill for that, but they did move the service up to a #1 priority from a #2, because I had no water in the house.
All of this was before 9:30 yesterday morning. No matter who I talked to, nobody could tell me when the service crew was coming to my house. It was just going to be fixed. Several times during the day, I went out to check, just to see if someone had come to turn the water off. They hadn't, so it was still flowing down the street. After sunset, I wondered if they were really going to come fix my leak in the dark so I just wanted to find out if a schedule had been made. I just assumed because they hadn't come during the day that they would be there first thing this morning.
I called the after hours number and left a message to call me back because I had no water. A few minutes later, a lady called me back and said she couldn't tell me when they would get to my service, but she could tell me that it was on the schedule.
I just happened to mention that I had job interviews that next day. She said "Oh, you don't have to be there for any of the work", then I knew she didn't know I had no water. I told her I would like to take a shower before going to interviews, but I have no water. Well, that changed everything. She said she hadn't been told I had no water, even though I told that to everybody I talked to. But, her attitude changed from mater of fact to getting someone on the phone to come look at my situation. I told her the meter had been turned on, but it was all flowing down the street instead of into my house. She agreed that she didn't know why the meter had been turned on, especially if all of the water was just flowing down the street.
It wasn't but about 15 minutes before someone showed up. He had to pump water out of the hole so he could see to turn the meter off. By this time, it was about 9 PM. He checked where the leak was and said it was on my side of the meter. I told him I was aware of that. The guy who put the meter on told he he had broken it, putting the new meter on.
Well, the water department guy was giving me a lot of "busy speak" that a break on my side of the meter is my responsibility and it would be up to me to get someone to fix the leak before he could turn the meter back on. I told him his subcontractor had been the one who broke the pipe, and if he hadn't disturbed the pipes, I would still have water. Then, he said he couldn't help that, because everybody in the county is getting a new meter.
Well, I know that in situations like this, the professional is more liable than the non-professional and so I told him his man shouldn't have attempted to replace the meter, if he saw a corroded pipe. He should have left it alone. And how am I suppose to know if a pipe is corroded in a 4 foot hole, if I'm not allowed to open that meter unless I'm water department personnel? He didn't have an answer for that, other than his default answer that the homeowner is responsible for his side of the meter.
I told him that I agreed with him, in a normal situation, but told him because they had attempted to make changes on the pipe, that was no longer a normal situation. He said he would call his supervisor and let me talk to him. I said that was fine, but I wasn't going to change from my stand that it was the water company's responsibility to fix the leak.
He got his supervisor on the phone and explained that the subcontractor had trouble putting the new meter on my service and had even told me that he had broken the threads trying to fit the new meter on. That subcontractor even told me it would fall under water department's responsibility, but I hadn't told anybody he had told me that.
When the supervisor heard the story, he agreed with me that it was the water department's problem to fix because before anything was done, I had water and now I don't. They in fact had made the situation worse. So, the guy with me asked when I needed the water fixed. By then, it was like 10pm, so I said first thing in the morning would be fine. He told that to his supervisor, and the supervisor said he would rather have someone out there that night, because they didn't want to get busy and have a problem fulfilling their obligation to me. That was OK with me, so I thanked the guy and waited for the crew to show up.
I waited and about 11 PM I heard engines outside, so I went out to see what was going on. There were two trucks out there and I met a guy walking up to my gas meter (yes, I said gas meter) to check something on it. He was digging a little around the pipes to check something so I thought I'd ask him what he was doing. I said, "there's nothing wrong with my gas meter, is there?" just kind of making conversation. He answered, "not yet." Now that made me a little more inquisitive so I had to know more.
As it turns out, my gas line is somewhere around the water line and about 5 or more years ago, the gas company moved my gas meter up beside the house. Before then, it had been down by the street for over 30 years. This guy was there to locate the gas line, so the crew wouldn't dig the hole and hit the gas line, causing a gas leak.
To make matters worse, he said they hadn't put in a tracer when they moved it, so he couldn't find the pipe with his equipment. So, the next thing out of his mouth was, "do you remember where the meter was before they moved it?" Well, I could kind of remember and pointed out where I thought I remembered it had been. Then I told him, "I hope I remember correctly." He said, "so do I." That was not the most comforting answer. Eventually, I saw a backhoe coming down the street, and I went back inside. I figured if the gas line was going to be an issue, I wanted to be away from it.
Through out the night, I made little trips outside, to see how they were doing with the water fix. I went out several times and it seemed like I always caught them on break. There were two of them and they were just talking about different things. The night was quiet and I could almost understand everything they were saying, even though I was about 25 feet away. None of what they were saying had anything to do with work. One was sitting in the backhoe and one was down in the hole, but he was standing up, and leaning against the side, not down working, like you'd think he would be.
The last time I went out there was about 2 AM this morning, and they were still talking. Obviously, they didn't seem to be in a hurry to finish the job. I fell asleep and woke up about 5:00 AM, this morning. I checked my faucets and I had water. After checking them all, making sure to clear any dirt or whatever from the line, I went out to look at the hole. They had done a very good job of smoothing the whole thing over, not leaving a pile of mud like I thought they would. Everything looked very good, except for the obvious spot where they had dug the hole. They even put down some grass seed. Well, they kind of put down some grass seed. But, at least it looked like a well done job. And I still have gas, too!
Now, I wait to check my bill to see if they try to bill me for all of that water running down the street for 12 friggin' hours. I have the company phone number of the guy who tried to install my meter and broke the fitting. He said he had the final reading of my meter before he took it off saved in his digital reader, so that would be the proper reading to have. I guess he turns that in to the water company, in case there is ever an issue. If there was ever an issue, I think I had one yesterday.
I picked up my cat this afternoon. He seems to be doing OK. He's sedated and I have to continue that minor sedation for 2 weeks, then we go back for the stitches to be taken out and take another X-ray to see how he's healing. If he's healing OK, he will be allowed to get out and move around the house more. At least I have water now, so I can give him a drink when he wants it.
Oh, if you are into that sort of thing, I have a copy of the X-ray of his broken leg. The vet said it's very rare for a cat to ever break a leg, let alone an indoor cat. The damn cat is only 7 months old, and he now has a metal rod down the length of the leg bone, just above his elbow. That's the largest bone in his leg. Once the leg heals, the rod will come out. Fun times a plenty here.
Oh, I think the unemployment is finally going to start this next week. I was denied a whole month because I made too much money in severance and PTO. I guess they look at it like I'm really not unemployed, but just on vacation. Isn't that stupid? My bank account goes down very fast, when I have to pay for things like cat operations and there's no money coming in. At least it wasn't as bad as last time, when I got no severance or PTO for being a racist. Some of you might remember that. I'll never forget it.
Busy times at my house the last 24 hours. It all started when I woke up to a blood curdling scream from a cat. At the time I thought it was just a stray that was outside the window, which there was. Cats defend their territory with a lot of spunk and when a stray just comes by, they get all huffy. They get in such a state of mind that you can't even pick them up, because you will get scratched or bitten, too. That's just how cats are.
After everything had calmed down, my 7 month old kitten wasn't using his front leg. He didn't seem in pain, but the leg was just like it was dead. He wasn't using it at all. I found out he was in pain up by his shoulder and after a visit to the vet and X-rays, we found he had broken his leg. So, on top of not getting any unemployment money (a long story), I had to pay for surgery to fix his broken leg. That, along with all of the little extras of pills and shots and other surgery stuff, the bill was just over $1,600.
He's home now, but he can't move his leg much for 2 weeks so it will heal correctly. That means he has to almost always stay in a cage I had to buy, so he won't move around too much. That's going to be fun, when he gets to feeling better and wants to get out of the cage, but we need the leg to heal well. He's still a growing boy.
Well along the same time frame as all of this was going on, the water company decided to come along and replace all of the water meters on my side of the block. At 8:00 yesterday morning, I suddenly had no water. I went out there, and found him installing a new meter. That didn't bother me, and he said he would be done in a few minutes. But, before long, it was longer than a few minutes and I saw him move on to my neighbor's meter. I checked my water and still didn't have any. I looked out there and saw another truck from the water company so I guess he had trouble with my meter, and had to call in help so he could stay on schedule.
But, when the other truck left, I still didn't have any water. I walked down to the meter, and water was flowing out of the meter and down the street. It was coming out of the hole with so much force, that it looked like it would be sprouting up into the air if the metal cover hadn't been on the hole. So, I walked up to where the first guy had moved ahead a few houses and talked to him.
He told me he had trouble with my meter and a pipe end was corroded and he couldn't get the fitting to go on. I told him that the water was flowing down the street and he didn't know why that would be. He thought the other guy would have just called in a service for my house and have a crew come to fix the fitting.
He asked if I had any water and I said no. And, he had told me the fitting was on my side of the meter, so that told me that all of that water going down the street was being paid for by me. He was a subcontractor so he said I should contact the water company to tell them what was going on. I saw some more water company workers down the street, so I went to talk to them.
I explained what was going on, and one of them called in the call. The dispatcher replied that a call had already been scheduled. I told them I had no water, and didn't know why the meter had even been turned on, because all of the water going down the street was on my side of the meter and I was paying for it. They told me not to worry about that, because they would adjust my bill for that, but they did move the service up to a #1 priority from a #2, because I had no water in the house.
All of this was before 9:30 yesterday morning. No matter who I talked to, nobody could tell me when the service crew was coming to my house. It was just going to be fixed. Several times during the day, I went out to check, just to see if someone had come to turn the water off. They hadn't, so it was still flowing down the street. After sunset, I wondered if they were really going to come fix my leak in the dark so I just wanted to find out if a schedule had been made. I just assumed because they hadn't come during the day that they would be there first thing this morning.
I called the after hours number and left a message to call me back because I had no water. A few minutes later, a lady called me back and said she couldn't tell me when they would get to my service, but she could tell me that it was on the schedule.
I just happened to mention that I had job interviews that next day. She said "Oh, you don't have to be there for any of the work", then I knew she didn't know I had no water. I told her I would like to take a shower before going to interviews, but I have no water. Well, that changed everything. She said she hadn't been told I had no water, even though I told that to everybody I talked to. But, her attitude changed from mater of fact to getting someone on the phone to come look at my situation. I told her the meter had been turned on, but it was all flowing down the street instead of into my house. She agreed that she didn't know why the meter had been turned on, especially if all of the water was just flowing down the street.
It wasn't but about 15 minutes before someone showed up. He had to pump water out of the hole so he could see to turn the meter off. By this time, it was about 9 PM. He checked where the leak was and said it was on my side of the meter. I told him I was aware of that. The guy who put the meter on told he he had broken it, putting the new meter on.
Well, the water department guy was giving me a lot of "busy speak" that a break on my side of the meter is my responsibility and it would be up to me to get someone to fix the leak before he could turn the meter back on. I told him his subcontractor had been the one who broke the pipe, and if he hadn't disturbed the pipes, I would still have water. Then, he said he couldn't help that, because everybody in the county is getting a new meter.
Well, I know that in situations like this, the professional is more liable than the non-professional and so I told him his man shouldn't have attempted to replace the meter, if he saw a corroded pipe. He should have left it alone. And how am I suppose to know if a pipe is corroded in a 4 foot hole, if I'm not allowed to open that meter unless I'm water department personnel? He didn't have an answer for that, other than his default answer that the homeowner is responsible for his side of the meter.
I told him that I agreed with him, in a normal situation, but told him because they had attempted to make changes on the pipe, that was no longer a normal situation. He said he would call his supervisor and let me talk to him. I said that was fine, but I wasn't going to change from my stand that it was the water company's responsibility to fix the leak.
He got his supervisor on the phone and explained that the subcontractor had trouble putting the new meter on my service and had even told me that he had broken the threads trying to fit the new meter on. That subcontractor even told me it would fall under water department's responsibility, but I hadn't told anybody he had told me that.
When the supervisor heard the story, he agreed with me that it was the water department's problem to fix because before anything was done, I had water and now I don't. They in fact had made the situation worse. So, the guy with me asked when I needed the water fixed. By then, it was like 10pm, so I said first thing in the morning would be fine. He told that to his supervisor, and the supervisor said he would rather have someone out there that night, because they didn't want to get busy and have a problem fulfilling their obligation to me. That was OK with me, so I thanked the guy and waited for the crew to show up.
I waited and about 11 PM I heard engines outside, so I went out to see what was going on. There were two trucks out there and I met a guy walking up to my gas meter (yes, I said gas meter) to check something on it. He was digging a little around the pipes to check something so I thought I'd ask him what he was doing. I said, "there's nothing wrong with my gas meter, is there?" just kind of making conversation. He answered, "not yet." Now that made me a little more inquisitive so I had to know more.
As it turns out, my gas line is somewhere around the water line and about 5 or more years ago, the gas company moved my gas meter up beside the house. Before then, it had been down by the street for over 30 years. This guy was there to locate the gas line, so the crew wouldn't dig the hole and hit the gas line, causing a gas leak.
To make matters worse, he said they hadn't put in a tracer when they moved it, so he couldn't find the pipe with his equipment. So, the next thing out of his mouth was, "do you remember where the meter was before they moved it?" Well, I could kind of remember and pointed out where I thought I remembered it had been. Then I told him, "I hope I remember correctly." He said, "so do I." That was not the most comforting answer. Eventually, I saw a backhoe coming down the street, and I went back inside. I figured if the gas line was going to be an issue, I wanted to be away from it.
Through out the night, I made little trips outside, to see how they were doing with the water fix. I went out several times and it seemed like I always caught them on break. There were two of them and they were just talking about different things. The night was quiet and I could almost understand everything they were saying, even though I was about 25 feet away. None of what they were saying had anything to do with work. One was sitting in the backhoe and one was down in the hole, but he was standing up, and leaning against the side, not down working, like you'd think he would be.
The last time I went out there was about 2 AM this morning, and they were still talking. Obviously, they didn't seem to be in a hurry to finish the job. I fell asleep and woke up about 5:00 AM, this morning. I checked my faucets and I had water. After checking them all, making sure to clear any dirt or whatever from the line, I went out to look at the hole. They had done a very good job of smoothing the whole thing over, not leaving a pile of mud like I thought they would. Everything looked very good, except for the obvious spot where they had dug the hole. They even put down some grass seed. Well, they kind of put down some grass seed. But, at least it looked like a well done job. And I still have gas, too!
Now, I wait to check my bill to see if they try to bill me for all of that water running down the street for 12 friggin' hours. I have the company phone number of the guy who tried to install my meter and broke the fitting. He said he had the final reading of my meter before he took it off saved in his digital reader, so that would be the proper reading to have. I guess he turns that in to the water company, in case there is ever an issue. If there was ever an issue, I think I had one yesterday.
I picked up my cat this afternoon. He seems to be doing OK. He's sedated and I have to continue that minor sedation for 2 weeks, then we go back for the stitches to be taken out and take another X-ray to see how he's healing. If he's healing OK, he will be allowed to get out and move around the house more. At least I have water now, so I can give him a drink when he wants it.
Oh, if you are into that sort of thing, I have a copy of the X-ray of his broken leg. The vet said it's very rare for a cat to ever break a leg, let alone an indoor cat. The damn cat is only 7 months old, and he now has a metal rod down the length of the leg bone, just above his elbow. That's the largest bone in his leg. Once the leg heals, the rod will come out. Fun times a plenty here.
Oh, I think the unemployment is finally going to start this next week. I was denied a whole month because I made too much money in severance and PTO. I guess they look at it like I'm really not unemployed, but just on vacation. Isn't that stupid? My bank account goes down very fast, when I have to pay for things like cat operations and there's no money coming in. At least it wasn't as bad as last time, when I got no severance or PTO for being a racist. Some of you might remember that. I'll never forget it.
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hope tomorrow is all gum and rainbows
just to tweak DVS's well-known love for gum.
