Oh, Rats!

Where to begin? A few weeks ago, we discovered that our dishwasher wasn’t working. It made all the noises of running but no water was flowing inside. Several attempts to run it were made to no avail. Paul’s Appliance came, took a peek, and discovered that “something” had chewed through the water lines. Water had pooled under the dishwasher, water water everywhere. I ran downstairs to see if it had gone down to the basement. It had.

A month later and several dozen Chinet plates later, we have our kitchen floor ripped up, wall in basement torn down, cabinets out, and a brief day of asbestos remediation because we had the original 1972 floor hiding under our wood laminate. Lucky us. As this was the third water related claim in a year, Mapfre decided to let us go after they cover this most recent claim. No worries, other insurance companies will take us. Yes, this is the third water related issue this year—one was the hot water heater down in the basement requiring the complete replacement of the carpet, the second was a toilet overflow in the upstairs bathroom that required a complete downstairs bathroom renovation as the water had gone down the walls there, and now this. Yikes.

You would think that would have been enough but there were other plans in the works. Mom, while bustling around the boxes of food that contained everything removed from the cabinets, got tangled up, tripped and cracked two ribs. Yep, two ribs. She is fit to be tied over this one and I don’t blame her. I can’t say that she didn’t have it coming. She is always moving about, usually doing things in a precarious manner. But it still sucks. “I should be in senior housing” she said to me.

Sitting at the kitchen table the other day, I heard an aggressive scratching. Aggressive, I tell you. Coming from under the flooring and near an output vent, I got down on all fours to see if I could figure it out. I remembered seeing a hole next to the foundation and went back out to see if it were there still. Sure enough, we had what looked like a gopher hole going right under the foundation of the kitchen table area. Orkin was called, Orkin came, Orkin found….rat activity. Yes, rats. So, now we have a torn up kitchen (which is going to require more tearing up to finish it), a missing wall in the basement, and rats. How are we doing? Not great.

There is no moral to this story or any kind of lesson to deduce. I will say this, however: My life has not been boring, ever. I am the person that always has some kind of craziness going on and I have morphed into a new breed of human as a result. Need me to snake your toilet? I can do that. Want some chicken piccata? I can make it. Wondering what all your bloodwork results are telling you? Let me have a look. I am frequently tired but absolutely never bored. How could I be? Although I do wish for a time when peace reigns supreme, I have to laugh as I would cry if I didn’t. Time to look at some kitchen cabinet ideas on Pinterest. Suggestions?