{"id":452,"date":"2014-04-02T21:53:18","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T15:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=452"},"modified":"2021-06-18T19:59:41","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T13:59:41","slug":"that-was-the-month-that-was-or-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=452","title":{"rendered":"THAT WAS THE MONTH THAT WAS…OR MORE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, it’s the last day of March and I’m starting to write this new blahg.<\/span><\/strong>\"How\u00a0 You would not believe what a month, or rather two months since the last blahg, I have had.\u00a0 It’s been rough and busy as opposed to the old rough and ready cartoon.\u00a0 You wouldn’t believe what has happened but I’m going to write this blahg with some faith that you will accept what I am telling you as fact.\u00a0 It won’t be pretty…much like the photo to the right showing how much I have aged over this last month…or more.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This blahg was going to be singularly about my mother.\u00a0 I’ve written here before about her health and the struggles I have had to make sure she has had proper care.\u00a0 The biggest struggles have been first to get her to take some responsibility for her own care and medication and second to have all my siblings on board about her care and medication.\u00a0 That last effort has not been easy because I’m the one who had been taking care of business the most and complaining about the lack of effort on my siblings’ part(s).\u00a0 To be fair, two of my brothers live out of town; with one of them living in the USA.\u00a0 If you had forgotten, I live in Canada.\u00a0 To make a long story short, back in February we all met, except the brother living state-side, to talk about my mother.\u00a0 It was a Tuesday evening, which is significant, and we managed to come up with a plan to take some more stress off of me and to make sure the others knew exactly what should be done regarding my mother and father.\u00a0 I walked away from that meeting feeling hopeful that things would change.\u00a0 Little did I know that three days later, the ceiling would fall in…or the ice would drop.\u00a0 Read on for an explanation.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What should be clearly understood is that my parents live in a two story house that is heated by oil.\u00a0 I have, or maybe have not, mentioned that my friend Bryan lives with my parents and really was my eyes and ears in that house.\u00a0 The key word in that last sentence is “was<\/em>“.\u00a0 Three days after the Henderson children met to discuss our mother, something unimaginable happened.\u00a0 There had been a slight warming in the weather and all of the snow and ice that was on the roof began to melt.\u00a0 I wish I had taken pictures of the roof before all of this happened because you wouldn’t have believed the size and thickness of the ice and icicles.\u00a0 So, there was a thaw and you can guess what happened next.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My mother called me later that day, around 6:30, to say that they had no heat in their house.\u00a0 I called my brother Todd to go by the house because I’m thirty minutes away and he’s closer.\u00a0 He called me later to say that the oil tank was empty.\u00a0 I thought that was odd because the tank had been filled earlier that week.\u00a0 I called the oil company who delivered the oil to see if the tank really had been filled.\u00a0 Needless to say, I got into an argument with the manager of the company who tried to tell me someone must have stolen the oil from the tank.\u00a0 It was not a pleasant conversation because we basically called each other liars.\u00a0 Shortly after that conversation, Todd called me back to say that he had discovered that a large chunk of ice from the roof had fallen and landed on the oil filter and had severed the filter and line from the tank.\u00a0 Over 800 liters of oil had spilled into the ground. I wish I had known that before I had called the oil company.
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The next few days were a flurry of phone calls and meetings.\u00a0 I had to meet with two different insurance adjusters, engineers, a safety and standards agent, as well as numerous emails and texts to my siblings regarding what had happened.\u00a0 My mother was immediately relocated to my brother Dan’s house while Dad and Bryan stayed in the house.\u00a0 It was so cold that Dad eventually went to stay with my sister and Bryan came to stay with me.\u00a0 In fact, Bryan stayed with me until this past Sunday (more than a month) until he eventually moved in with his niece.\u00a0 There was a short period of 4 days while my mother also stayed with me while Dan was having surgery on his foot.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 During that short time that my mother was here, I managed to track down a house rental in Belleville and worked with Dan and my sister Wanda to arrange to have furniture moved in to that house.\u00a0 Eventually my parents were reunited in this house and everything has gone well there.\u00a0 I was still dealing with an insurance adjuster who took almost the full month to get some compensation for my parents.\u00a0 Their insurance policy will cover the cost of their current location but getting the cheque for the expenses took some doing.\u00a0 Eventually the engineers came back and said my parents’ old house would have to be torn down because oil had seeped under the foundation and the garage and there was no way to remove it without demolishing those structures.\u00a0 Mom was in a bit of a panic over it but hey, they’ll get a new house built after the soil is removed and remediated.\u00a0 It will probably be a year before everything is all done and the new house built. The cost of the remediation has been estimated to be around one million dollars.\u00a0 Who knew?
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, the past month has been busy with all kinds of meetings and salvaging belongings from the old home.\u00a0 Eventually it was determined that all furniture and mattresses would have to be replaced because oil fumes cannot be cleaned from these items.\u00a0 Also, their refrigerator and freezer were written off because the oil fumes get into the coils and can be released again when these items are relocated to a new house.\u00a0 I’m still working on itemizing all of these things so we can get proper compensation.\u00a0 We’re also dealing with a panicked neighbor because the oil has also migrated to her yard.\u00a0 I’ve been assured by the insurance company that the cost of remediation to her yard will be covered by my parents’ policy.\u00a0 I’d cross my fingers but then it would be hard to type.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, that’s been my life.\u00a0 Add to it that I suffered a serious computer hard-drive failure and had to work hard with several programs and a new hard-drive to restore my computer.\u00a0 I’ve always preached the importance of backing up data but I had been behind in my back ups.\u00a0 That won’t happen again.\u00a0 I think I was running on fumes myself up until this week but I managed to get through it all.\u00a0 Now you know why there hasn’t been a blahg for a while.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My parents’ old house has finally been emptied by some helpful contractors paid for by the insurance company.\u00a0 Last week, I went through the house and took some video.\u00a0 It’s sad to see what’s left but I’m going to post that video here.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n