I had to run into town to do some grocery shopping and birthday shopping. I waited until it had cooled off to about 92 degrees at 5:15 p.m., to make my trip. While shopping, I got a call from my oldest daughter that the sinks were gurgling and one of the toilets was not flushing. I could not have been more delighted with this news! (Yes, I am being sarcastic.) I told her not to run anymore water and not to flush any toilets until I could get home.
If you have read my earlier posts, you know that I live on 10 acres in the country. We have some really good well water and a new and huge septic tank. So, if you have ever had a septic tank you know that gurgling sinks and toilets not flushing are NOT good signs. So, I finished up my shopping and got home about 7:15 just as the sun was starting to set. I unloaded my groceries and threw the frozen items in the freezer and headed outside with my oldest daughter to tackle one of the grossest jobs on earth.
I needed a hammer to loosen the cap that is on the doohickey thingy pipe that I needed to look down in to see if "things" were backed up where I thought they were. Well of course, I could not locate the hammer. It was not where it was supposed to be. So I ended up having to use a wrench. Let's just say, that cap was not going to come off without some divine intervention. As I tapped and pried, my daughter pulled and I just started praying for Jesus to give us the physical strength we needed to get that cap off. And after working together and using every ounce of strength we could muster we got it off. By this time it was dark, so we needed a flashlight to look down the in pipe. Sure enough it was backed up. Yippee! (Yes, I'm being sarcastic again!)
Next came the utterly disgusting job of snaking the water house down into the pipe, and trying to get it to turn at the bottom into another pipe. Guess what? You can't just snake it in. You have to put your entire arm in, up to your armpits and work it into the other pipe. By this time we were working with a flashlight. There's something about sticking your hand and entire arm up to your armpits down into the cold, wet, dark unknown that oozes with creepiness and yuckiness. Have mercy! My daughter and I took turns trying to force the hose in as far as we could get it to clear the um, well, the problem. After about an hour the water started going down and soon water was flowing free and clear and I practically broke into the Hallelujah Chorus.
Of course, I had bathed the dogs earlier in the day, and one of the kids let them out and they decided to roll in the overflow mess. So not only did my daughter and I have to shower, but the dogs ended up getting a second bath. We had not had supper yet and it was 9 p.m., by the time all the children were fed and 9:30 by the time they were tucked in. And I still have a dessert to make tonight and it's 10:30 now!
This was the last thing I needed and it couldn't have come at a worse time. And somewhere in the midst of all this mess, I thought that there never ever would be a good time to have to deal with it! I can't say I ever really want to do that again in my lifetime, but I know I will have to. Then my mind shifted to loss and grief. Loss is always the last thing we need and there never really is a good time for it to come, is there? And we cannot handle the loss and grief on our own. We need divine intervention to help us when we are in the cold, dark, depths of despair. Sometimes we feel like we are wallowing in muck and mire and will never be able to get out. But praise the Lord, for His helping hand to lift us up. And praise the Lord for really good friends and family members who are there to lend their helping hand!
I don't know what you are dealing with today, but I know that God is there, just waiting for you to reach out for His hand. I pray that you will find comfort in Him today! Keep looking for the
Sunshine After the Storm
Blessings!
Betsy
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