Here is what we were able to save from the Cellar:
And here is what we couldn’t save
That’s life I guess, but I can’t say enough about my Son’s friends who spent hours helping us out to clean this stuff out. My wife has allergies and the mold on that stuff would have knocked her flat.
The idea that you could get 5-6 teenagers to give us a Friday night and Saturday to help us clean out the cellar is simply amazing. If that’s not a blessing I’d like to know what is.
Update: Would you believe another one just showed up asking if we need anything? I guess all those dinners I cooked for them really made an impression.
….Shelly just popped over with a sup pump and she and the wife came back with a long hose and the cellar is even now being pumped out, sure beats the two hours of the bucket brigade that we went through today.
Once it is dry we’ll have the furnace guy in to safely turn the heat back on and then tomorrow and a bit today we can begin the process of throwing out tons of stuff that will soon be moldy.
It’s a real shame but what can you do, this stuff happens to everybody sooner or later so I guess it was our turn, but there is a real pleasure seeing friends come through when you need them.
Even after the Lonely Conservative joined the ridiculously long list of bloggers encouraging people to send money to a total stranger to send him to CPAC (thanks oh lonely one btw) I had already resigned myself to staying home. I knew exactly how I was going to say it.
I was going to explain how being a conservative means knowing that if you don’t have enough money to do something you don’t fudge it, you don’t charge the extra and hope for the best you, You say, OK I can’t afford it I can’t afford it and do without as Sharpe told Col Hogan:
Major Hogan: What do you do when you’re short of Cash Sharpe?
Lt. Sharpe: Do Without sir.
You can see the quote at 7:53
I wasn’t concerned, after all I was still very flattered by what WAS given 72% of it from people who have never met me. If that wasn’t enough of a shock several people who gave significant contributions by check told me to keep the money no matter what happened with CPAC.
Those funds were enough to pick up the necessary replacement laptop (grabbed it tonight before I got home). It is without question the best computer I ever purchased, not because of the quality (it is bottom of the line) but because it was a gift from people trying to help. How can anything ever top that?
So I was making plans for the week, first a thank you post to those who gave and paid for my laptop. Then, the youngest was figuring on a trip to Funspot on the weekend, Tuesday is the City Counsel meeting, Wednesday would be Ash Wednesday and the wife figured we’d go to Boston one day during vacation. I’d get my CPAC info the way I did every year by reading other blogs.
Stacy had inquired how much I had left to go, I let him know. I got an e-mail from a reader of his who wanted to ask a question I answered it but didn’t get my hopes up, after all there was quite a ways to go and there are a lot more worthy causes out there than me.
Then just before midnight, 11:13 p.m. to be exact, came the paypal notice and I got the shock of my life.
Once again it was a total stranger, never met, never talked yet suddenly the balance was taken care of. I arranged a phone call to talk and express my surprise and gratitude. It’s one thing to have someone like your writing, it’s quite another for them to express that feeling in this fashion.
So it appears that I will be on my way to CPAC, tomorrow in between my errands I’ll register pack and make final arrangements to leave.
To all of you who helped make this possible, from the $5 spot to the final gift, I will never forget it…
…and yes the look on my wife’s face was something to see.
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