Broken Computer
My ramblings about a broken laptop, subscription boxes piling up, blogs to be written, and Colorado's flood!!
On August 30, 2013 I went to use my computer to upload a YouTube Video and to write another blog about my latest subscription box that I received in the mail. Much to my surprise when I went to turn my laptop on... it didn't turn on. This is what I was left looking at...
I had to record me trying to turn my laptop on because as soon as I attempted to this would flash across the screen and the computer would turn off. :(
Luckly for me, my step-dad works on computers for a living. He tends to take his time with families though, so I knew it would be a while before I was able to get my computer back. I UPS'd it to him and that was that...
Luckly for me, my step-dad works on computers for a living. He tends to take his time with families though, so I knew it would be a while before I was able to get my computer back. I UPS'd it to him and that was that...
FLOOD
Fast forward about a week to September 9, 2013, Colorado had a slow-moving cold front stall over the mountains near the front range from Colorado Springs area to Fort Collins. This caused a lot of rain and flooding downstream from there (Via the South Platte River). My house is downstream from here along the South Platte River.
Fast forwards another week to September 15, 2013, We were told that the flood would hit sometime late tonight so we went and started sandbagging. I've only lived in my current neighborhood for almost 4 years. We were told that the flooding would be worse then it was back in 1994. I lived on the opposite side of town then and the waters just about reached our house; however, that was from the ditches over by my house that flooded. Not the river. I live about a mile from the river and although there are railroad tracks between the river and my house the water was predicted to go well over that. I also have a ditch located about a block and a half behind my house. So either way, I figured I'd get hit.
Fast forwards another week to September 15, 2013, We were told that the flood would hit sometime late tonight so we went and started sandbagging. I've only lived in my current neighborhood for almost 4 years. We were told that the flooding would be worse then it was back in 1994. I lived on the opposite side of town then and the waters just about reached our house; however, that was from the ditches over by my house that flooded. Not the river. I live about a mile from the river and although there are railroad tracks between the river and my house the water was predicted to go well over that. I also have a ditch located about a block and a half behind my house. So either way, I figured I'd get hit.
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Thankfully my husband came down from Wyoming and helped me sandbag... well, I helped him. LOL. Unfortunately we found out the alternator in the pickup truck went out so we had to use the Pontiac. :( Made quite a few trips but we got it done, and put sand bags by all 3 of our basement windows, both garage doors and then the doors leading into the garages. WE WERE SET!!!
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These pictures were taken at around 9pm. The river is NEVER even close to being this high. It is very low all the time, so it was a sight to see it this high.
Go onto the next day, September 16, 2013, the crest hit early in the morning, and thankfully it wasn't as high as they had predicted. The bridge that goes over the river... of course it went over that and it did go out into the fields near the river,but it never went over the railroad tracks by my house, the ditch behind my house never got full and over flowed. :) although one of them did near Wal-Mart :(
Go onto the next day, September 16, 2013, the crest hit early in the morning, and thankfully it wasn't as high as they had predicted. The bridge that goes over the river... of course it went over that and it did go out into the fields near the river,but it never went over the railroad tracks by my house, the ditch behind my house never got full and over flowed. :) although one of them did near Wal-Mart :(
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The top picture is the railroad tracks that are about 2 1/2 blocks from my house and then the bottom two are of the ditch by Wal-Mart. My town pretty much dodged a bullet there... BUT!!!!!!
This is my towns substation underwater!!!! (picture from Todd Allen)
It is to the West of the river and North of the road that goes over the bridge...
We were put under a NO FLUSH ORDER and told that because the substation was underwater that we had the possibility of LOOSING our POWER.
It is to the West of the river and North of the road that goes over the bridge...
We were put under a NO FLUSH ORDER and told that because the substation was underwater that we had the possibility of LOOSING our POWER.
  These are from my friend Kodie Stephenson... They are facing Southeast in the top picture and East in the bottom picture. The river is probably 3/4 of a mile from where she's standing. So we were faced with a NO FLUSH ORDER... Therefore, kids didn't have school, day cares weren't open, fast food places weren't open, and restaurants weren't open... Basically anything that needed running water, flushing toilets, were closed. Luckly the stores were open (just not the delis).
My girls were troopers... I'm glad my son is still in diapers, didn't have to worry about him not flushing the toilets. At our house I had a Wal-Mart trash bag in the potty chair, and a garbage bag in the toilet. I'm glad that I seem to be a hoarder of baby wipes and sanitizer because boy did we use them a lot... I even found some no rinse wash that came in VERY handy... I can only find it at Walgreens so I bought the last couple that they had. I wasn't sure how long we would be without running water. I love the smell of Baby Magic anyways, so it wasn't like I was buying something that I'd never use again. 
There were several port-o-poties around town. Located by stores, parks, and various other locations. I did have a problem with Walgreens though. They locked theirs. I understand that someone had to pay to 'rent' them, but come on... you're a store... it should be accessible by the public, not just your employees. :( We were told that we couldn't throw our waste into our trash cans... therefore they brought in kitty litter and a big trash can for us to toss ours into. GROSS!!!! and I thought living close to an ethanol plant wasn't to pleasing some days. I couldn't imagine being down wind from there. YUCK!! Yet, the town seemed to get some humor out of it as we created a Homemade Potty Page on facebook... Hence where the following pictures came from...
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September 18, 2013, day 3 of the no flush order and I decided to head out of town, there was finally a way out, I did have to go 15 miles out of my way to be able to head East to my mom's house in Nebraska. I drove over one road close to the river in the neighboring town and it was down to one lane. I still had to drive in water!!!
I made it to my mothers and stayed there the rest of the week. I was able to hang out with some friends. We caught up and remembered our high school days. A friend of mine has kids about my step-daughter's and daughter's age, so they had fun, and my little man had a blast as well.
I made it to my mothers and stayed there the rest of the week. I was able to hang out with some friends. We caught up and remembered our high school days. A friend of mine has kids about my step-daughter's and daughter's age, so they had fun, and my little man had a blast as well.
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September 23, 2013, It was Monday, the No Flush order had been lifted. 8 days without indoor plumbing. It was crazy, I was glad that I was out of town and didn't have to deal with my dishes piling up, laundry piling up, and the lack of toilet and showers/baths... I had 3 kids, come on... They were going to get dirty and stinky... Potty accidents would happen and that just wouldn't be a good thing. I was glad that my mom only lived a couple hours away, so I had the ability to get out of town, and that she was willing to let us stay there for a week. :)
Now back to my computer, while I was up at my parents, my step-dad finished fixing my screen. I was happy. I got my laptop out, placed it on my desk and turned it on... nothing... it didn't work. the same thing was going on as before. I was crushed. He said that he fixed it, and that it was working. I never saw that. :( I was so mad/depressed/disappointed... I only had my cell phone and I wasn't able to do much on there. Let alone upload things to my blog and YouTube. Well, I could but it was hard and had to be short and sweet.
When we got home, I noticed a musty smell... I went to my basement and this is what i found...
Now back to my computer, while I was up at my parents, my step-dad finished fixing my screen. I was happy. I got my laptop out, placed it on my desk and turned it on... nothing... it didn't work. the same thing was going on as before. I was crushed. He said that he fixed it, and that it was working. I never saw that. :( I was so mad/depressed/disappointed... I only had my cell phone and I wasn't able to do much on there. Let alone upload things to my blog and YouTube. Well, I could but it was hard and had to be short and sweet.
When we got home, I noticed a musty smell... I went to my basement and this is what i found...
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Thankfully we didn't have much down there. The water tables had risen a few years before and caused water in our basement back then. What salvaged what we could and never put much back down there again. So we were lucky this time.. or were we???
The water rose about 3-4 inches in my basement. I let my land lord know and they said they'd bring over a sump pump in the morning.
September 25, 2013, I sent my laptop back via UPS to my step-dad hoping that he would be able to fix it. I was without my laptop for about a month now. It was driving me crazy...
The water rose about 3-4 inches in my basement. I let my land lord know and they said they'd bring over a sump pump in the morning.
September 25, 2013, I sent my laptop back via UPS to my step-dad hoping that he would be able to fix it. I was without my laptop for about a month now. It was driving me crazy...
No Hot Water
September 26, 2013, sometime overnight my hot water heater went out. :( My step-daughter wasn't to happy when she went to take a shower and it was COLD water! I wasn't able to light it and after letting my landlord know, they weren't able to light it either.
October 5, 2013, It was my daughter's 4th birthday party, and I still didn't have hot water. By now I was doing my dishes by boiling hot water on my stove. My kids were doing communal baths after I would boil a few pots of water on the stove and add some cold to the bathwater...
My parents came down and I was expecting them to bring my laptop with them. NOPE!!! It wasn't fixed yet. :( grrr... My mom did leave her mini-laptop here so I had something to use. I attempted to use it over the next few days but it was SO SLOW!!! I couldn't get anything done. It took me so long to even attempt to bring up Weebly that I just said forget it. I would go longer without a laptop.
By now, my subscription boxes and free items had begun to really pile up. Sure, I take a video of the box as I open it up, and I take pictures of the items, but the videos and pictures were just sitting there on my phone and camera without a place to go. :(
October 7, 2013, 11 days without hot water. I was starting to feel like I was being punished for leaving town during the no flush order. :( Around 4:30pm my hot water was back... Although, the guy said he didn't think it would last long. :( GREAT, now I was just wondering how many days I'd have my hot water back. When I knew that the tank had enough hot water, I did my dishes, and we all took showers. :) YAY... to be clean again.. LOL... I didn't have laundry to catch up on because I just did it in cold-cold... usually I do it with warm-cold, so it wasn't a big change for me.
October 9, 2013, only 2 days with hot water, and my hot water tank went out... AGAIN!!! The guy said that he would have to talk to the landlords about what they were going to do. He wasn't able to just light it and go on with his day. The Hot Water Heater was stating "Weak pilot light detected, System will reset when pilot flame is sufficient. Well, the water in the basement causes whatever to not work right, so the flame wasn't ever going to be sufficient enough unless that whatever was replaced.
October 16, 2013, 20 days after my pilot light went out on my hot water heater I had hot water again... It was fixed. He was able to replace whatever went bad and said that he shouldn't be back anytime to fix it. I was so happy to have hot water again!!!
Fast forwards to October 22, 2013, my brother from Iowa headed down to my mom's house in Nebraska for his 21st birthday. He then came here because he grew up here. He brought me my laptop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! I was so happy, but you know what... It took me 2 days to actually get on it. LOL. Go figure. It feels weird being on my computer again. Two months doesn't seem that long, but when I look at my folders on my laptop and see how many videos I have to upload and how man blogs I have to write about them.. WOW, I'm going to be busy.
So, please, give me time.. I know that I'm behind and that the videos are old, but I'll get them all uploaded and blogged about...
Until Next Time,
Cristina
AKA Stay At Home Mom of 3
October 5, 2013, It was my daughter's 4th birthday party, and I still didn't have hot water. By now I was doing my dishes by boiling hot water on my stove. My kids were doing communal baths after I would boil a few pots of water on the stove and add some cold to the bathwater...
My parents came down and I was expecting them to bring my laptop with them. NOPE!!! It wasn't fixed yet. :( grrr... My mom did leave her mini-laptop here so I had something to use. I attempted to use it over the next few days but it was SO SLOW!!! I couldn't get anything done. It took me so long to even attempt to bring up Weebly that I just said forget it. I would go longer without a laptop.
By now, my subscription boxes and free items had begun to really pile up. Sure, I take a video of the box as I open it up, and I take pictures of the items, but the videos and pictures were just sitting there on my phone and camera without a place to go. :(
October 7, 2013, 11 days without hot water. I was starting to feel like I was being punished for leaving town during the no flush order. :( Around 4:30pm my hot water was back... Although, the guy said he didn't think it would last long. :( GREAT, now I was just wondering how many days I'd have my hot water back. When I knew that the tank had enough hot water, I did my dishes, and we all took showers. :) YAY... to be clean again.. LOL... I didn't have laundry to catch up on because I just did it in cold-cold... usually I do it with warm-cold, so it wasn't a big change for me.
October 9, 2013, only 2 days with hot water, and my hot water tank went out... AGAIN!!! The guy said that he would have to talk to the landlords about what they were going to do. He wasn't able to just light it and go on with his day. The Hot Water Heater was stating "Weak pilot light detected, System will reset when pilot flame is sufficient. Well, the water in the basement causes whatever to not work right, so the flame wasn't ever going to be sufficient enough unless that whatever was replaced.
October 16, 2013, 20 days after my pilot light went out on my hot water heater I had hot water again... It was fixed. He was able to replace whatever went bad and said that he shouldn't be back anytime to fix it. I was so happy to have hot water again!!!
Fast forwards to October 22, 2013, my brother from Iowa headed down to my mom's house in Nebraska for his 21st birthday. He then came here because he grew up here. He brought me my laptop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! I was so happy, but you know what... It took me 2 days to actually get on it. LOL. Go figure. It feels weird being on my computer again. Two months doesn't seem that long, but when I look at my folders on my laptop and see how many videos I have to upload and how man blogs I have to write about them.. WOW, I'm going to be busy.
So, please, give me time.. I know that I'm behind and that the videos are old, but I'll get them all uploaded and blogged about...
Until Next Time,
Cristina
AKA Stay At Home Mom of 3
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