An Absurd 3 Weeks

As many of you know, I was getting ready to go to Colorado Springs to help my daughter, Nichole by being there to watch her two kids, Kai 12 1/2, & Evie 2 1/2.
They drove down here (Albuquerque, NM) on July19th and planned on leaving July 22nd.  I had an appointment come up at the last minute,  I had to be here for, so I planned to go up on the bus, the night of the 24th.
Here's how it actually happened, and what happened afterwards!
I don't remember exactly what day it was, but before the 22nd, Nichole's car (1990 Volvo)just stopped.  Couldn't get it started again.  It had gas, wasn't the battery, nor the starter.  It was towed to a shop, the fuel pump in the gas tank had gone out.  They did something to it so she could drive it to a friends house, so he could help her fix it.  Car was fixed and we hit the road the evening of the 26th.  Got into Co. Sprgs about 2:30 am Friday.  Sat the 28th we got up (about 10 am) to a flood in her laundry room, kitchen and part of the dining area. The main sewer line had backed up through a drain in the laundry room.  YUCK.  that got  cleaned up. She had called the maintenance guy right away, but the plumber didn't show up until 9pm! he was called about 8pm.  Oh duh, the owner (in CA) didn't realize nobody on either side of the duplex couldn't use the water!!!
Sunday am - I woke up with a minor scratchy throat and not feeling great - I was sleeping downstairs - everybody else was upstairs.
Sunday night after the kids were in bed, Nichole and I with gloves and masks on started ripping up carpet and linoleum.  Oh yeah, the owner had refused to pay for someone to come clean it up!  I got the section of carpet up and Nichole had part of the linoleum up in the laundry room and she said, "STOP" I'm not doing this anymore, there's feces under the linoleum.  So, we stopped.

(That's TP around the drain - after she pulled up the linoleum)

 After a call to the sewage dept, they said we should get out of there. Nichole informed the owner, and we took off to her boyfriends small one bedroom apt.  (3 adults, 2 kids, 2 cats) Owner finally offered to pay for a hotel room, for at least one week, but with everything they have to do, more than likely two weeks.  Because oh yeah, they also had to clean up the asbestos!
Well, to save everyone some $, Nichole decided we should just stay at the BF's and not pay any rent for Aug as it would save the owner almost $900 for the 2 weeks in the hotel.  OK.
Meanwhile, Monday am - both Nichole and I are feeling pretty ill, my throat hurt, glands hurt and swollen, woke up every am with my nose so clogged up I could hardly breath, feeling bad all over...............that kept up most of the week. I started steaming myself right away.   Same thing with Nichole except she was also nauseous after a few days, but not quite so clogged up. .
I needed to come back on Sunday Aug 5th for a few appointments, and we decided it would be better to have Kai come with me, and for us to stay here for a few weeks.
Only Sat, I woke up and started vomiting!  I felt horrible. Trip to urgent care!
So, we planned on Tuesday Aug 7th.  I had everything packed up and ready to go - Nichole went out about 8am with my suitcase and came in  a few minutes later, on the phone with the police dept reporting that her car had been hit!!!!!
Oh yeah!  We stood on the side walk back to the apt and just started laughing!  WTH????
The right tail light cover was all broken up and her trunk smashed in enough that she couldn't open it!
 She thought it might have been the people parked in the carport on the opposite side of the parking lot so we had to wait around for the police to show up!  They did, about 2:15!
Shortly after 7pm the 4 of us went out to her car to go shopping for snacks on the bus, and some food for the house.  Kai, noticed a few very small pieces of amber plastic in the parking lot just behind her car! Oh wait! there had been no amber plastic on the ground at 8am, but the entire amber cover was broken!  There was red on the ground, but no amber! Sitting right next to her car,  is this Dakota truck, front facing out, with front end damage with it's amber light missing!!!!!!!
So, I guess they figured they could pick up all the amber plastic and we'd never know who hit her car!  (?) There was some old damage on the truck, so it would be a little hard to prove, but the lower part of the bumper and their license plate sure looked like it matched the Volvo bumper! A friend took me and Kai to the store while Nichole once again waited for the police.  The pieces of plastic were too small to really do much with I guess, and so basically she is SOL, on getting anything out of the person who hit the car!
Kai and I made it on the bus on Wed. Aug 8th, I had an acupuncture appointment on Thurs and a Dr's appointment on Friday with errands to run both days, by the time I got home both days, I was exhausted.
My Dr. did give me some antibiotics for the congestion, which had traveled down to my chest in the past few days as well as still hanging out in my sinuses.  However, I'm going to steam myself some more and see if I can get it cleared up without.  If I'm not cleared up in a few more days, then I'll take the antibiotics.

Amazing what can happen in just 3 weeks!

 I had taken my computer up there, the monitor had been left on the coffee table under the living room window - well, when Nichole went back over there I think it was the day after we went to her boyfriends, she had to dump the water out of the monitor - it had rained, and the windows were left open!
We checked it out when I was getting stuff to come back ( brought the computer back with me) and it didn't work! So, I'm using her old monitor for now.  I never did get my computer set up there!
Thursday - I got up and wanted to take pics of the baby ducks - it seems as though the little door to the memory card will not stay shut tight - and the camera doesn't want to work!  so I have a rubber band around the camera until I can afford to have it fixed!

Oh yeah, I had to put all 3 shops on vacation mode as everything in my shops is in Colorado!  I'm working on a few crocheted items I hope to have listed pretty soon.



For the sake of space, I left out a lot of little details, but tried to include as much as possible without writing a book!
Nicole said she was thinking of having a sign made to put on the car and one for her that's reads, " I'm going through a lot right now, please don't make it worse!" or something to that effect!
Thanks so much for coming by and I hope you have a terrific day!
Oh how they have grown!

Mama & the 3 babies 7-12-2012

7-12-2012

7-12-2012

7-19-2012

How they have grown! 8-9-2012 The  pic on 7-19 was the last pic of all 3 of them - not sure what happened to the 3rd baby!

8-10-2012 Proud Mama & her 2 babies

8-11-2012 Just like most babies, these little guys take naps too (on the grass)!  they had just woke up and I was able to get this pic before they went back in for their afternoon swim! Mama is never far away from her 2 surviving ducklings.