The Hippies Are Back

My hippie daughter, her hippie husband, and their hippie dog are back with Ruth and me in Michigan.  To be fair, they arrived before we did.  They came back in early April.  Ruth and I arrived on May 2nd.

Prior to returning to Michigan I received the following information from the hippie clan.

April 7th –  “Dad there’s no heat!”   

I had Elizabeth call the local repairman.   A hundred and eight dollars later we had heat.  One of our whatchamacalits was stuck.

April  15th-  “Dad, the closet shelf and clothes rod ripped out of  the wall in my bedroom.  Mom had some things in boxes that broke during the crash.  What do you want me to do?” 

Don’t do anything.  I’ll fix it when I get home.  In the meantime, move the coats from the front closet to our bedroom and hang your clothes there.

April 18th – I received an urgent  letter from Consumers Energy. 

“Mr. Tebo,  We wanted you to know that your electrical use is up 185% from the prior month’s usage and you are only seven days into your normal usage cycle. You have used more power in the past week than you have in the past four months.”  

We’ve lived in this house since October of 1977 and never received any such letter from the power company.  (I hope the grid can handle the increased load.)

April 21st – I received a phone call from Elizabeth.  I wasn’t available so she left a message. 

“Dad, give me a call.  We have a situation here at the house that we need to discuss.  Sutton and I will take care of it, but we need to talk about it.” 

I returned the call at 11:30 p.m. but no one answered the phone.

April 22nd –  I received a text from Elizabeth at 7:32 a.m..  “Call me when you get up … please.”

I was up so I called immediately and I heard the following.  

“Dad, we have a flood.  Water came up out of the bathroom shower and it’s brown. The overflow ran into Michael’s old bedroom, the storage room and part of the new carpet in the family room.” 

&(%$#&@

If you are a regular blog reader you’ll remember that the lower level of our house flooded last July. (See post “Water” from August 1)  You’ll also recall that the repair work took seventy-six days and was completed in October.  (See post “Done” of October 17) We completely remodeled the lower level bathroom and David’s old bedroom. We replaced the carpet in the family room, storage room, and the bedroom. We also replaced the laminate flooring in the bathroom.  Everything was new – new – new.  I made the final payment for the $14,500 abatement and repair on October 19th. We left for Florida on October 24th.

April 22nd – Continued.   We were leaving for our cruise to Cuba the morning of the 22nd. I contacted our insurance company and a hazmat team to clean-up the mess while Ruth dressed for the trip.  We spoke with Elizabeth several times throughout the day.   Everything moved forward while we boarded the ship. 

April 26th – We returned from the cruise.  We learned that the sewer line from the house to the septic tank was blocked and had to be “reamed open” so that waste (AKA poop) could pass.  One hundred and eighty dollars later, it was clear.

April 27th – We packed.

April 28th – We headed north.  We took our time and returned to Michigan on May 1st.

May  2nd – The heating system started banging and clanging.  We have four heat zones in our  house.  The one to our bedroom and bath had remained untouched by the hippies.  As soon as it was activated, the trouble began.  We called our repairman and the system was analyzed.  A new thingamagig is scheduled to be installed on May 10th.

And the hippies’ toilet (brand new I might add) developed a problem with the float valve.

May 3rd – We drove to Hamilton to watch Eva’s fifth grade band concert.  It was wonderful and a welcome relief from our woes.

May 4th – I hung up the closet shelf and clothes rod  that had fallen on April 15th.  Ruth fixed the May 2nd float valve issue.  We contracted with a carpenter to make the repairs to the drywall, bathroom vanity, trim boards, paint, and reinstall the bathroom sink and toilet.

May 5th – A flooring expert is coming  (today) to determine the best way to make the necessary repairs and replacement to Michael’s old bedroom, bathroom, storage room and  family room floors.  (I’ve got my fingers crossed.)

Please understand that I don’t believe that the hippies are responsible for all of these issues.  (Although I had none before they arrived.)  But when I opened the refrigerator this morning and discovered this organic hippie food, I knew we were in for a long summer. (They’re staying until 1:43 p.m. on July 24, 2019.)

And when they’re gone, I’ll miss all three.