Genesis 6-8: The Flood

We arrived home at our Colorado apartment around 2:45 pm last Sunday afternoon. We'd had a wonderful time in Iowa (as you can read about here), but we were ready to relax on Sunday evening in order to be ready to get back to the grindstone on Monday.

We opened the door to our apartment and were almost blown away by the awful stench of mildew. Uh oh. While we were in Iowa it had rained heavily in the Denver area every single day, and we had already heard that a few ground-floor apartments had suffered some flooding. Looks like ours needed to be added to that list. Now, when I say "flooding," you're probably tempted to think of standing water and our stuff floating around the room. It wasn't like that at all. In fact, there wasn't really anything visible at all that looked flooded. However, the carpet was wet or damp all over our apartment, and the smell was pretty bad.

We called our apartment complex and told them what was going on. Since the maintenance guys aren't around on Sundays, we knew we might not have anyone come out very soon. The woman at the office said she'd see if a maintenance guy was already on the premises so he could come take a look. After hanging up, we turned on our air conditioning (it had also been hot while we were gone... and has continued that trend). We soon found out that the AC wasn't working properly either. We called again, and they said someone was on his way.

So, Sunday evening our maintenance guys did some work on our AC, then, with our help, moved most of our furniture off our carpet (quite a task - the only parts of our unit that are NOT carpeted are the tiny bathroom and the kitchen), ripped it up, and took the padding out from underneath. They left us with about 6 industrial carpet-drying fans running, and a dehumidifier. Our bed was covered with stuff we'd had to lift off the floor, and our whole apartment smelled sickeningly like mildew. We couldn't stay there. One of the maintenance guys had assured us that the apartment complex would compensate us for expenses if we had to get a hotel or something. So we got a hotel room (fortunately, we had done laundry before leaving Iowa, so our already-packed bag was all we needed when we left our apartment). Elizabeth's brother, Clay, was in town visiting, so we arranged to meet up with him for some supper. It was really fun.

Monday, Elizabeth had to go to work. I ran some errands and did some work of my own. By late Monday afternoon, we discovered that no further work had been done on our apartment that day. We were going to have to find a hotel again, and we had no guarantees that we would be compensated. I booked a room on Hotels.com (the ONLY room I could find in the city that was available for less than $350). When we got to the hotel, they told us that they'd been booked up for hours and didn't have any record of my reservation. I sat waiting for someone to answer the phone at Hotels.com for more than a half hour before we decided we had to find somewhere else to stay. It was about 8 pm. Thankfully, our pastor and his wife had offered their spare bedroom for us, so we headed toward their place. As we were getting settled there, I got a call back from a woman at Hotels.com who spent eleven and a half minutes apologizing to me for what had happened.

Tuesday we both went to work again. Elizabeth was able to get part of the day off, and I finished up my work as quickly as I could so we could try to hang out with Clay some more, AND make sure they were doing something to our apartment so that we could live in it again. We DID get to hang out with Clay for a couple of hours, and when we got back to our apartment they had installed brand new carpet. The mildew smell had been (mostly) replaced by a new carpet smell. Finally, we could sleep in our own bed. (By the way, our apartment complex is reducing our rent to compensate us for our inconvenience and expenses, but the amount they're giving us won't quite cover what we were put out.)

Of course, now we were realizing that our AC still wasn't in working order. We had a very warm night's sleep Tuesday night.

Wednesday they came to work on the AC some more. The guy made it so that it was COLD air coming out of the vents, but it still wasn't coming out very forcefully, and was therefore doing little good. We had another warm night on Wednesday night.

By the time we got home after work on Thursday, he had come to finish up the AC work. Finally, Thursday night was nice and cool and comfortable.

Friday morning when we woke up we realized that the carpet near the utility closet where the AC unit sits was wet. Something was leaking. So another maintenance phone call was placed. When we got home from work on Friday, everything had been fixed, but the maintenance guy(s?) had made a huge mess, tracking mud and grass and dirt all over our new carpet and through our kitchen and somehow making a mess on our counter tops as well.

So, I sit here on Saturday morning, thankful that after almost a week of being home from vacation, it looks like things are pretty much back to normal.

Of course, during the new carpet/furniture moving operation a few of our bookshelves got destroyed, so now there are books sitting all over our apartment with nowhere else to be placed...

Ready for the Weekend

Sometimes I post on this blog and it doesn't seem to show up in feed readers for two or three days. I think that's both weird and completely obnoxious. Anyway, if you're reading this in your feed reader and it's Tuesday or something, just know that it's being posted on Friday at about 11:30 am Mountain Time.

I don't know what the heck goes on in Australia on a daily basis, but this makes me wish (a little bit) that we got their version of the Today show around here.

Is this heaven?

Our week in Iowa has been fantastic. Unfortunately, we have to leave the corn-filled rolling acres in the morning to get back to our regularly scheduled lives. It's been warm but not miserable for our stay, but I will say this: humidity makes a BIG difference in how 85 degrees feels.

On our way eastward across the state on Sunday night we got to stop and stay with Jase & Rachel (how did we not get a picture together, guys?). That evening we also had the privilege of meeting up with Mike & Katherine and their two-month old, Benjamin. LOVE that family. 

The other day Micah was using a plastic tub as a hat.

Jaron and a co-worker took Joel and I on a tour of his glass-manufacturing plant in Dewitt. It was REALLY cool. Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of Jaron on our trip (though he did take a few). Later, we all got to go swimming at my in-laws' place. You'll have to visit Pam's blog for pictures from that outing. Pam calls Micah "a bit of a wild man in the pool," and I just have to say that's an understatement. The kid seems neither to realize nor to care that when he steps off the side of the pool, or off the step in the pool that he will sink, and not be able to breathe, and drown. It felt like he spent the whole afternoon just testing to see if an adult really will show up any time he decides to throw himself in.

Today we had to say good-bye to Joel, Pam, Gabriel, Micah and Zaley, but first we got to hang out a little bit. Micah asked me to read him Corduroy... about three or four times. 

Then they both wanted to listen to their new book, Luke Goes to Bat (nevermind the hat... Micah insisted I wear it).

Here's Gabriel (and Elizabeth) listening intently.

Family photo!

In this video, Gabriel was "playing" the conch shell like a trumpet. Micah wouldn't stop asking me to "take a picture!"

So, after filming for a few seconds, I took his picture.

And those are our tales from Iowa.

Ready for the Weekend

This week's video is a bit lengthy. After the first few minutes it's really much of the same, so you don't need to watch the whole thing unless you find it absolutely riveting.

Ready for the Weekend

This week's "Ready for the Weekend" is a tad later than usual. Apologies for that. It's also not a video this time. I hope you think it's funny anyway!

This happens seemingly every week in our house.

The Holiday Weekend

We were lucky enough to spend time with some of our closest friends almost every day during the holiday weekend. On Thursday we got together with our life group for prayer and a few games of "nuke 'em" (a really fun game played on a volleyball court... but requiring much less athletic skill than volleyball).

Saturday evening we joined up with most of our life group (and a couple others) and played some more games (including Bocce Ball, Rummikub, and Buzz Word).

Sunday evening 8 of us got to go to a Colorado Rapids (MLS) game. The game ended in a 0-0 tie (don't get me started on what's wrong with that sport [short answer: A LOT]), and it was really hot... but we had a good time. After the game we were shown down onto the field so we could watch the fireworks. It was a really fantastic fireworks show. It took us more than an hour to get out of the parking lot after the game, though. That part was NOT fun.

Monday we hung out with our life group (and others) at the house of an uncle of one of our members. There was a pool, a yard for playing Bocce Ball, and a big basement with ping pong and a Space Invaders arcade game (Elizabeth whooped me at ping pong). In the evening we headed to the park to watch the town's fireworks show (not nearly as impressive as those following the soccer game the previous night). Tons of fun!

Now it's back to work, but only for a few more days! Then it's off to IOWA for a week with family!

Were you hoping to see some pictures? Ok, here are a few.

Waiting for the soccer game to start Sunday night.

On the field after the game, waiting for the fireworks show.

After the fireworks, being scolded by a security guard just

off camera who was rudely yelling at us (the most cooperative

people in the stadium) to leave the field, "We wanna go home!"

An intense game of doubles.

My highly cooperative friends as we waited for Arvada fireworks Monday night.

Ready for the Weekend

If you were alive in the 80s & 90s, you ought to find this at least slightly amusing. Happy July to everyone, and have a good weekend!