The other day, Oprah Winfrey did a show on a woman who forgot about her child in her car for 8 hours in extreme heat. When she finally did remember, the baby had died. True story, and it has honestly haunted me since then. The morale of the show was for mothers to slow down, take things one step at a time, ect, ect, in order to avoid mistakes.
It was approximately 15 minutes after the show that I, while cleaning the house, decided Lilah was probably ready for her nap. I began filling up the kitchen sink, reminded myself not to forget about the water running and left the kitchen to do something else (I forget). Then I read Lilah her stories, and took my sweet time putting her down.
When I finally returned to the kitchen (maybe 20 minutes or so later) I found water everywhere. There was a good inch of water all over the kitchen floor, and a good 1/2 inch spilled out into the dining room. (The picture is taken after some major clean-up) Water had slipped under the side door leading to the basement, pooled at the top of the stairs, and then continued down the stairs. In addition, water had somehow slipped through the floorboards and begun dripping through the ceiling in the basement directly onto our fancy printer and computer gear. The water then shorted out our electrical system, which set off our fire alarms, right when the baby was sleeping -- natch. (Luckily she slept through it)
I was amazed at amount of water in such a short period of time. It was something out of a "I Love Lucy" episode. So, just like Lucille Ball, I called my Desi home from work.
When Nick came home, the house was ringing with the fire alarms and water was every where.
Nick, who is almost always upbeat and happy, became .... UPSET. (Honestly, it was the most pissed I had ever seen the guy, even more than the time I stood him up when we were dating). So I avoided him like the plague while he sullenly pulled his computer gear from Niagra Falls. Every once in a while I heard a word or two muttered from the basement that made me glad L was still asleep.
It took us the rest of the night to clean the house up. When Lilah woke up, we tried keeping her contained to a play pen, and when that didn't work we just let her play in the water. (It was like Disneyland to her) The next day we paid for an electrician to come out and determine that while the damage was extensive, nothing permanent had been done and we would not start any fires when our electrical system was reconnected.
Meanwhile, after making it up to Nick, I have determined I will never again forget and leave the water running, and I will try to slow down and take one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is not my friend.
3 comments:
Wow! That doesn't look good at all! I've done the same thing, but not to the same extent... Hope nothing with the computers downstairs was to messed up!
Damage update: We did lose a hard drive in the server that contains all our digital pictures, music, home videos, etc and it looks like a wireless keyboard and mouse as well. The hard drive can be replaced with no loss of data so thats good.
So you've officially made it up to me already? I was hoping to use it again later as leverage, does this mean I can't... :)
I'm just glad Desi didn't get mad enough to get in the boat and row out!!! Remember when I put some dents in Cliff?!!!! UFFDA. Guess these guys get used to Heidinger women. And one of us shredded a money order!!! Dang, we must be careful girls!!
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