When It Rains, It Pours...

Well, at least in parts of Australia right now. I guess the horrid drought that killed millions of animals across that great continent (domestic and wild) is over, at least for the time being. Now flooding is wreaking havoc - I read in an article earlier today that yesterday in one part of Australia over 15 inches of rain fell, and more is expected as a cyclone passes close by. Ohmygoddess! I feel overwhelmed too. Except here, it's not raining, the weather is just fricking freezing everyone and everything to death! This morning I walked to the bus stop in minus 20 F. Even my heavy-duty cold wear did not keep my poor hands warm, which were suffering mightily by the time I got to the bus stop. Thankfully, the bus was already coming over the hill as I was crossing the street to the stop. If I'd have left the house 30 seconds later, I would have missed it - when normally I have a 2-3 minute wait once I get there! Seems it left it's starting point earlier than usual this morning. As it is, I'm outside exposed to these elements between 20-25 minutes every morning, and every night (that doesn't include the extra time if I trek to the supermarket when I get off the bus at night...) What kept me warm a few years ago isn't working any more. What does that mean??? Alright, I know - move to warm, dry. Except I can't - not for 10 more years. Full retirement age and all that - plus like everyone else, my 401(k) had five plus years of carefully garnered gains wiped out by those bastards on Wall Street. Let's bring back firing squads - and each and every one of them who took a bonus for 2008 will be lined up. I'll gladly volunteer to pull triggers! So, I have a plumber coming on Saturday - when I should be at work earning OT pay. And last night, I heard once again something either in the attic or scratching it's way up the side of the house. I've heard it at least four separate times now since I moved into the north bedroom. That means to me that something is now living in the attic - a space I have never seen in the nearly 19 years I've lived in this house. A space I do not WANT to see, ever! That means hiring someone to go up there and check it out - someone to get rid of any critter(s) - and then hiring a separate someone to fix the hole, or whatever the critter(s) are coming through - so it doesn't happen again. I am pretty sure now that the leak that has been slowly spreading a stain over a part of the ceiling in my living room downstairs is from the toilet. Since I called the plumber on Monday I have not used said toilet, and the stain has dried up - leaving a "slit" in the dry wall where it has split and ugly brown marks all over. I disinfected the area with full-strength bleach on a cloth Monday night. Oh Goddess! From what I've read on the internet about such problems, now I'm thinking the ant problem I had back in 2003 may be related to this leak - it must have been leaking all this time. Ants, particularly carpenter ants, are attracted to warmth and moisture. I haven't had the ants since paying $800 to have the house treated - but what if they're still there, living just beneath the upstairs bathroom floor? EEK! What if the floor is rotted out from all the years of water damage? EEK! As if the plumber isn't expensive enough - oh my, I think I'm having a heart attack. Needless to say, all of this is proving extremely upsetting, not to say expensive. All culminating at the worst possible time. It wouldn't be so bad if I could just kick back on the deck at night and put my feet up and enjoy the stars. But to endure this - this - CRAP - during the coldest winter in Wisconsin in the last 20 plus years, that's unbearable. By the way, today I got my combined electric/gas bill - $221 and change. Two months in a row, over $200! I NEVER had utility bills over $200 before - EVER. I HATE THIS CLIMATE. Welcome to global warming. It's totally screwed up the Jet Stream, not to mention the Gulf Stream. It wil just get worse and worse and worse for the next thousand years or so...