Sometimes…… you just gotta believe – Feel Good Friday

Hi everyone

Whether you use the term "guardian angel", "fairy godmother", "the fates", "the universe".  Whether your beliefs tend to the secular or spiritual, there are times in ones life when many of us will say "someone was watching over me, that day!"

Well, last Tuesday was that day for us.

Lou and I were out in the middle – literally – of the Atlantic Ocean.  Nearly 1000 miles from the nearest piece of landmass.  Half way between the European and North American continents.  With no cellphone connection (so we discovered!)  I kept saying to Lou….. do you have any messages on your phone.  I nagged and nagged and kept checking and kept checking… Lou thought I had gone nuts because I hadn't done that before.  Anyway… no messages… we had 2 little bars on the phone… but no messages.  I said to him – are you sure that Jen hasn't called you?  No… nothing, he said.

Back at home our cat sitter (Jen), for some inexplicable reason, decided she wanted to make one last stop at our house on the way home.  She was car pooling with her husband that day and the two of them agreed to pop past. 

She opened the door to the house and smelled something she said resembled grease burning on the stove, she also heard some loud – and strange crackling noises.  She quickly ran to the car and called her husband.  They both came into the house and traced the smell, and the sounds, to the basement.  They opened the back door to the basement (where all the mechanicals are kept) and and encountered, smoke, sparking electrical elements and a flooded floor.

A pipe had burst in the ceiling and instead of gushing, was spraying as a hose does when you hold the end of it – a rain shower effect.  It was right over all the mechanical pieces in the basement.  It was spraying the walls, all the mechanicals and more dangerously, the exposed electrical connections on the aging furnace.  Which in turn was sparking long blue electrical sparks from 3 different locations.

Where does the someone watching over us come in?  Well,

1. she wasn't supposed to make another call that day, but felt the need.
2. Guess what her husband does for a living?  Yep, he's an electrical engineer.  Quickly he knew what to do and sent Jen in search of tools and flashlights.  He got the water turned off, the electrics turned off, made sure the water heater pilot light had gone out and then they set to try to clean up as best they could.
3. Guess what he had certified to do a few months ago…. yep… fix burst pipes!  He went the next morning, picked up piping and connections and fixed the pipe.

If they hadn't come by the house that night and fixed the issues, the chances are very high that we would have come home to a burnt house and it chills me to the bone thinking what might have happened to the cats.

So, were the cats sending me messages and me sending Jen messages that she decided to go to the house?  Certainly, somewhere in this amazing universe we live in, Jen and I were having some kind of vulcan mind-meld.  We found out on our return that I started bugging Lou about calls from Jen am hour before she decided she really had to do a final visit.  Or… was it my great-grandmother looking after me?

Whatever it was, there was certainly someone watching over us that night.

Now, we have the cleanup.  Apart from the water damage, replacement of drywall, cleaning carpets, etc. the worst thing we have to deal with right now is lack of heating.  It's currently 30 degrees outside and pretty darn cold inside the house – about 50 degrees.  The new furnace comes on Monday – and not a day too soon, I can tell you.  Especially with bronchitis!

You have no idea how grateful I am that we came home and the most we had to deal with (well… I do.. cos Lou is out of town for two weeks) is cleanup and replacement.   It could have been so, so much worse.  I have to say, too, in continuation of the someone looking after you, our insurance company and the assessor have been incredible.  We have tried to claim on insurance 3 times in 20 years (hail damage, etc) and been denied each time.  We changed companies about two years ago, and are so pleased that we did.  They have been marvelous.  He even told me things I needed to do and check that I would never have thought of.  I am so grateful.

So…. there you have the Feel Good Friday story for tonight.  A story that could have had an entirely different ending.

I'd like to finish up with another wonderful Feel Good Moment…. As many of you know, Rose my *mom* is going through cancer treatment for breast cancer.  Mom is in her late 80s and a tiny little thing.  She is however, amazingly feisty and strong-willed.  More than that, she has an amazingly warm heart. 

I received a letter from her this week thanking me for the cards and flowers that I had sent to her.  In her letter (yep… snail mail!) she said that she was doing fine and that this "little setback" had blessed her life in one way…. she had met so many amazing people who were helping her through this process, how kind and considerate they had been, how much they cared.  And, how sad it was that people didn't realize how hard the teams at the hospital work and appreciate them more.  Needless to say, it brought tears to my eyes.  This was so typical of Rose.

Well, I hope you will forgive me if I take my cold body upstairs to try to make some warm soup in the hope that it will reach my toes and fingers and warm them up, too!

Happy Friday everyone.

Hugs

Jaydee