I feel your pain. It has been such a frustrating year, and now you had this bad luck. Hopefully better times are ahead.
On the positive side - if your kids are healthy and your wife is healthy and you are healthy, that is ALL that matters. Like the dark at night and light in the morning ........Spring IS coming. All the other stuff don't sweat it - just go with it / deal with it and make the best of it. Hang in there man.
Man, my buddy decided to finish his basement during lock down. Killed himself working, built a bar, floored it, put up a bunch of walls. Had all his instruments down there, many laying on the floor (he's a luthier, thousands and thousands of dollars in beautiful instruments), he came down last week, and his pump had failed, 4 inches of water in the basement.... Same as you. Terrible.
I remember back when I was a teenager, an old sage (the town drunk) once told me: "make the most of today...because tomorrow could really suck" Sorry to hear about your issues...looks like your "tomorrow" came early.
Shit happens. if you and the family are healthy.... your good. Everyone needs a disaster once a while to keep you hustling.Running your own biz by your lonesome is the hardest...ever.
You will handle this.... Mother nature can be a bitch, remember this is all a test.... after you get that shit fixed let's get after that 38 Ford huh???
Oh yeah man... I got this... I was over it an hour later and working my ass off to save as much as I could in the office. What's scary is that I was standing in 4" of water and didn't have enough wits about me to cut the power... I literally used my shop vac plugged into a flooded circuit to get most of the water out. Hell, I didn't even realize it until I watched my security video to see my initial reaction. I'm so stupid... But at least I have a positive outlook on life!
I feel your pain. Our entire house flooded 15 days ago and we have yet to see a mitigation company. They're slammed right now. So we're living with stinky musty carpet and about 2k square feet of warped hardwood, and a gigantic hole in the ceiling. The fun really will start when they start doing demo and I have to move out all 6 of us to family or a hotel for how knows how long? Not to mention my paranoid self will have to let crews of strangers work in the house around my tools and hot rods. Stress level 10. We also got about 10 neighbors and friends to shop vac all the water out while standing in a 2" deep puddle.... we're as smart as you! But hey, we're alive, healthy, fed and warm. It could be worse. Praying your situation improves.
I have a few friends down in Texas and have been hearing all the horror stories. You are all in my prayers. Stay safe and healthy. God Bless.
A small positive information: My new H.A.M.B. Alliance tag arrived USPS shipped in very good conditon about 2 weeks ago on this side of the pond... so it seems at least something is still working properly there...
Ryan, we have been in house remodel since October. I decided to give my Wife a new kitchen with all the trimmings. This included everything new that gets us through the day. We have been dealing with Shipping issues since the first on line order went out. It don't matter witch of the 5 your dealing with they all are having issues. There isn't a single one doing an Ace Job in todays climate. You can only do as good as the support system around you. I believe those here understand that. I say take care of the big issues at hand and don't loose sleep about things out of your control. Once you can control the weather in Texas then maybe you can clean up the shipping industry but I wouldn't bet on that part. Those that don't understand will always Bark about something, let them bark.
Just know I don't feel like you are complaining, and I wasn't trying to one-up your story. It's good and healthy to let friends know how we are REALLY doing, and I appreciate your candor.
I feel for you, Ryan. Keep the good attitude as it will pull you through. Brighter days are ahead or at least I sure as hell hope so. Hang in there..........Don.
You're already way ahead of the curve. You COMMUNICATED with everyone which is the most powerful tool anyone in business has. Good news or bad, able or not, when you get in front of it like you're doing it's a win. Props man...
I'm not gonna complain about my muddy driveway ever again...even though it drives me nuts this time of year. Take care of family first...
Not at all man... It just feels weird to complain when you got it much worse than I do. Hell, I'll have mine back to 60% or so by Friday. If you need help with anything - holler. I could prolly store a car or something if need be. Yeah, for sure...
Maybe my experience will give you something to compare yours with and think I ain't the only one, back in 1988 we experience a huge snow and ice storm, the proverbial 100 year storm and it stayed below freezing for 4 days. The roads were a sheet of ice and nothing was moving, I was thankful to have a fire place and plenty of wood so we stayed in the den & kitchen area with the hall door close as to keep part of the house warm but as things gradually thawed I realized the water heater was flooding the back half of the house, all the carpet and was soaked, the sheet rock wicked up water and I did like you I vacuumed up as much water as possible, without pulling the main and I was lucky not to get electrocuted. I finally got a company to come out with fans to help dry everything out and I proceeded to remove wet sheet rock, I was hauling the sheet rock to the dump and returned home to find the electric cords the service pro guys used was defective and had overloaded and caught fire burning up the carpet like a snake had crawled through the house. When I was able to return to my business I found busted water pipes upstairs and down stairs, one of the main leaks was over my picture framing area and I lost a ton of mat board. I worked my arse off trying to get everything back in working order, I can laugh about it now but at the time it was devastating. HRP
As I started reading about the cold issues and lack of heat/electric in Texas and hearing about the broken pipes, I thought. Man those poor people don’t know how to handle freezing temps and someone needs to advise everyone to keep your water running out of your faucets. Not a fast run. But a fast drip. it saves our ass up north during frigid temps for decades. Glad you’re back on the right track at home.
I kept everything dripping for 5-6 days. No broken pipes or leaks but I'm sure not looking forward to getting my water bill!!!
Oh... We knew well enough to have dripping faucets... Here's what did us in: On the Monday night of the storm, we had rolling blackouts - We'd have power for one hour and then no power for an hour... That night, it got to 3-degrees. So, when power cut off the heater in our well house cut off as well. The pipes in there would freeze/expand, thaw, freeze/expand, etc... and eventually they let go. And, of course, when power cut off to the well, our faucets stopped dripping... Total damage thus far: 1. Every pipe in the well house was busted. 2. Main pipe in office/shop/lab busted. 3. Water heater in lab busted. 4. Tankless water heater at house EXPLODED. 5. Three busted pipes at house. 6. Four broken ribs (slipped on the ice cuz I'm Hawaiian Ryan and not Cold Cochran.) *** At the end of the day, our homes here aren't built to withstand sub freezing temps for 6 straight days... Add to that the stupidity of our electrical grid in Texas and you end up with a disaster... I got off easy though...