The phrase, “What a year this week has been,” comes to mind when thinking back to this last weekend. We had been thinking of going to the lake for the long weekend, but then decided to just stay home and get the flooring finished in the kitchen, entrance and hallway. Before I go much further, I would just like to say that the flooring is, indeed, one tile short of being finished. I would also like to say that we are alright. Okay, now that this is cleared up…on with the story.
On Friday we had to shut off the main water line to the house so that we could disconnect the dishwasher in order to do the flooring underneath it. Cool. All went well there. While Rod was installing the flooring, I went out to run some errands. I came back shortly before lunch and went downstairs to turn on the main water line, as the dishwasher was all hooked up. Rod stayed upstairs and kept an eye out for any leaks as the water came back on. There were none. Great. So, on to having lunch and then proceeding with some other household projects while the flooring was being finished. We are never really good at having just ONE and only ONE project on the go, as most of the projects ripple into another, so we just address what each of us is good at. For me, that is not flooring. I am good at lending a hand, but Rod is the FLOORMEISTER.
At some point I went down to the basement to put something into the office. I could hear something and was wondering what kind of tool Rod would be using that would make that kind of sound. Suddenly it hit me. He was not using any power tool. And then it hit me that I have heard a sound like this before. Water…running rapidly…into who knows where? I went around into the furnace room/laundry room area and there it was…a total gushing waterfall coming from somewhere upstairs. I let out a holler that we had a flood! I grabbed a mop and began directing the inch and a half water on the floor towards the large drainage area. I could hear Rod running around upstairs. I was trying to make my way to the water line, and then looked up and say that, on top of an old refrigerator, where we have some power tools and our router box for wifi, the water was pouring down right on top of everything. I yelled to him to bring me some towels, which he did. For some reason, I was not concerned with being electrocuted, even though water was pouring onto electrical stuff. We got the water stopped and the electrical stuff dried out, and the flood waters down the drain pipe. But what we did not get was our functioning router. It was fried. So we had four days with no wifi, which was pretty much like living at the lake with no service to speak of. The water had been coming from the ensuite where someone had tried to run water, then realized that the water was turned off, and forgot to turn off the water tap. I am not naming names here, but I was not at home and our dog, Freddy, cannot turn taps on or off. But seriously, this could happen to anyone. So when we had turned the water back on, focusing on the dishwasher, we had no idea that, way in the back of the house, water was now running in the ensuite. The sink does not drain well (put that on the list of things to address) so it overflowed and flooded the ensuite, and in the process ran water down the furnace vent into the basement. The furnace vent we directly above the old refrigerator.
Once the flood was taken care of, and it was discovered that the router was toast, I got on the phone to our provider and they had to mail us a new router. This took days. Long, painfully everlasting days with no wifi. Our data on our phones was low, so we could not watch any videos or open anything that might eat data. Fortunately this is now resolved.
But then, this same weekend, a dear friend died. There was, of course, all the stuff that has to be dealt with upon the passing of someone, and in this case some of it was sort of “official” stuff, so my focus went there while still in the midst of a reno and recovery from the Great Flood of 2021. We were informed on Sunday morning of his passing, although he had died the night before (which I had felt but did not want to believe). So with all the official stuff being dealt with, it was not until Monday morning that it hit me…hard. I could feel myself spiral into a state of shock. I was incredibly sad, yes, but what worried me more was the “numbness” that I have often experienced with the death of a family member or friend, or even my late wife. I knew that this was not a good sign. It is the “foreplay” to deep depression. So, I decided that I would move myself into self-care mode. I began expressing that I had hit a wall with this. Friends responded accordingly, bless their hearts. Rod was very attentive, bless him. I knew that if I just acknowledged this, it would move on more quickly and allow me to get my bearings once again, which it did. Although yesterday was still difficult, it was better. And today I feel almost “normal”….well, normal for me. You know how it is. Who is ever really “normal”?
I did find it interesting that the wifi should be eliminated from my life at the same time that, for a moment, so were my emotions. To me, the two things sort of correlated, one with the other. The wifi keeps me connected very easily with those around me and who are in my circle. Emotions do the same thing for us in a much more subtle way. And, interestingly, the wifi got hooked up last night and by today I am almost feeling normal again on an emotional level. Although sometimes in a dream a cake is just a cake, I do see the connection between the wifi incident and the emotional process. Energetically, it all happened at the same time and in a similar way. Water is the element of the soul and of the emotions. A flood was the catalyst for an interruption…a disconnect…as a soul leaves this earth plane and I was cut off (in a manner of speaking) from others in my circle. Some may say that this is just coincidence. But the definition of coincidence is that of two paths intersecting. Who is to say that the path of the Universe was not intersecting with my life path in that moment?
These are things that I find fascinating in life. These are things that I find I think about a lot of the time. These are things that make my life a more enriching experience.