Thursday, April 29th starts off just like any other day in our home. Chris leaves for Memphis at 5:30am and CJ heads off to school and I upstairs to my office for some "quiet" work time and the day progresses normally until I get that ill-fated phone call at 5:08pm. Chris's plan was to leave work early and run out and pick up our new camper and bring it home before the storms roll in on Friday and Saturday (now known as the 2010 Memphis/Nashville disaster) and he had to do it in the rain. Well, that phrase about the best made plans... fits. Chris is at the 40 bridge (new one) and as he comes down the hill (according to the man directly behind him) a horrible wind gust literally picks up the camper and jack-knife's it into the side of the SUV and breaks the tow hitch (above) sending the camper flipping into two lanes of traffic and Chris inside the SUV to the other side of the highway right into the guard rail. Thankfully, the Lord was looking over him and he walked away without a scratch. The officer working his accident told him that if he had been using a "bulldog hitch" which is unbreakable he would have flipped with the camper. In my mind a big reason to not have that kind. The SUV and the camper however, are completely trashed. The camper is a total loss and the SUV remains to be seen (probably a loss too). The fortunate thing is that I had written a check for the camper insurance on Tuesday before Chris had the wreck on Thursday. So at least that's covered. :~) I'm trying to find the humor of the situation. I'm sure State Farm won't find it humorous when they replace the camper after one payment for coverage. At the moment, they can't even start the claims processing since they don't have a policy number to match to the camper. Allegedly, that will be done in the next week or so.So, we think it can't get much worse well, let me just say it can. While we spend the weekend having a "pity party" over our above loss, we start having our plumbing back up. Just thinking a simple back up or at the worst it's tree roots that have worked their way into the line, we call the plumber to come out Monday morning. Low and behold we find out that it's a collapsed pipe before it gets to the sewer system. Note I said BEFORE. So after a ton of phone calls and visits from various pipe guys and plumbers and city workers, it's determined that it's on our dime (city pays if it's a problem on our property caused by the city sewer but, if it's a problem from our home getting to the city sewer pipe, it's on ours. It gets worse, they tell us that we must go 18-20 feet into the ground to get to the pipe, break up the street and go into our neighbors yard to get the pipe replaced. Oh and I forgot, they also have to take 4 tree's from our front yard (we have to pay for that too). From there we go talking to pipe / plumbing guys to see if we can "boar" under the street instead of breaking it up because even though it's asphalt, the way the city laws read, we have to replace it with concrete. Yep, you read this right. Once we are told that this is not an option because years ago before this was a housing area, it had gravel pits all around and they are concerned that the street could collapse under the weight then we would have to replace the street, I'm ready to cry. So after 4 quotes from the only 4 people in town that can do the work, I do cry. I'm sick at my stomach. I was seeing a new car in my distant future, I was definitely not envisioning spending that money burying it in the ground, literally. But, what can you do? Build an outhouse? ha ha. Now, that's a thought. In all seriousness, now that we have all our ducks in a row and are ready to go, we are told we have to wait 3 weeks before they can get to us. So maybe we should build that outhouse after all. So, that's my May and where I am, I'm still trying to find the sunshine and the humor amongst what I refuse to call my living nightmare. How's your May? LOL!
