sooooooo....... how was your weekend?

i'll tell you a little about my weekend.. saturday to be exact.. we spent the whole day scouting for memorial day weekend and found a new trail that we didnt finish... this particular trail has been named "BITE ME!!" since thats what it did to me... in the process of removing a fallen tree that was partially blocking the trail, which i was hung up on.. we hooked a strap to it and in the process of pulling it OUT of my now crushed quarter-panel.... somehow successfully amputated my entire rear hatch(keep in mind that this was my trailrig) it seems it was left open and when they pulled the tree past me its branches reached out and literally ripped the fiberglass rear hatch into 3 pieces.... so now i have a score to settle with said trail... and YES i have bought a chainsaw already this week... the rest of the day was uneventful if you dont count the nasty T-storms.... so i wheeled all day with the remnants of my rear hatch held in place with 50 yards of duct tape... not a bad day up to that point huh? but wait.. theres more...... it seems that in all my bouncing around in the NO CELL PHONE SIGNAL AREA i received a few voicemails that i could not retrieve until almost 9pm when i got near a major highway and better cell service..... it seems that while i was playing MY HOUSE WAS ON FIRE!!!!!!!! holy crap you cant imagine how pissed i was when i got the message finally 5 hrs later!!!! no one was home and my kids were (and still are) at my mothers so i could go break my truck..... i cant tell you how hard it was to keep that rig under 60 mph on the highway on the trip home (otherwise i'd probably explode my front d/shaft.. bad vibes ya know...) so after i got home and talked to a few neighbors it turns out it was a wiring fire in the cellar... it was caught early enough that it was contained to a corner of the cellar where i kept the recycling papers and such.. convenient huh? and the shelf with the spray cans and oil.. even more convenient huh?? my actual fire damage to my stuff really only consists of a pressure washer, my washer and dryer, and my shop vac, and some old kids bikes... i am SOOOO lucky because if it went 10 feet farther i would have lost $15000 worth of tools and equipment..... but that is all wet and sooty but not burned..... i live on the ground floor of a 2 story house and even thought the fire was right under my kids' room the only evidence of anything (besides the stench of smoke) is smoke trails in all the corners and cracks in the house like door jambs and light switches and stuff.... no fire loss in the living spaces but the smoke pretty much F'ed up everything i own.... like a moron i DO NOT have renters insurance.... so the owners insurance is only going to REIMBURSE me for my moving and storage expenses... ahh the wonderful "fine print" you learn about when its too late.... so i am looking for a new place and storage etc this week... i hope i can get a place lined up for june 1st but thats still 2 weeks away... the girls and i are ok... change is good but unexpected changes suck..... we will get thru this and it will make us that much closer and stronger.... so hows that for a sob-story huh?? well anyways with my current events i am going to be less active here on for the time being but i will pop in every day or so and check things out...... i know i have been planning this memorial day weekend thing and i WILL NOT drop the ball on it... although my attendance will not be decided until probably the last minute.. (i will probably not have time to replace my trail damage before then.. remember the "tree incident"?) i will post some final thoughts, directions and meeting times for that weekend in the next few days.. i guess the only good thing about this is i actually have $$ in my pocket for the impending expenses.. i am staying with a friend and dont have access to my own PC so i will probably pop in every day or so until i can get most of my $hit out to the trash or storage.. i have a few lines on new places and by the end of the week i hope to have something lined up.....
GET RENTER'S INSURANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

have a sparkling day :sunshine:

mike

Holy moly!

And I thought I had some problems over the weekend. I'm just glad to know that nobody got hurt, and your important stuff is more or less intact.

OMG Mike that's awful! Thank God that no one was there though!

I'm all too familiar with that smell as my family's house burned 1/2 to the ground when I was 5 (we were skiing at Stowe and the neighbor heroically evacuated both dogs and all 7 cats!). I still have alot of stuff, like photo albums and books that are black with soot ... it's not really a bad memory for me, just a part of my past, like a point on a timeline.

Anyways, thankfully it wasn't worse right? Hope you have good luck getting into a new place, and hope to see you and that hatchless trail rig on Memorial Day :looney:

-Bic

Glad to hear you and the girls are ok Mike. Hope you find a better place with a garage and a lift.

I went fishing on my Jet Skii Sat

Mike:

Glad you and the family are OK. Sounds like your local FD made a good stop. Out here in the boonies, basement fires can really escalate into something much more serious before anybody can respond.

To help with the smoke smell a little - here's a little tidbit. While there are commercially available expensive sprays, there is a widely available retail alternative called Ozium - it's an "air freshener" that's been around awhile. Believe it or not, it works really well on attacking (rather than just masking) smoke odors and lasts better than most. We carry spray cans of the stuff on all our engines. Can be found in a lot of auto shops and I even remember seeing it in WalMart.

Take your time getting re-settled and maybe you can plan a weekend down here during the summer, we can get a few guys to go over to Paragon with you.

Good luck.

Mike in NJ atriot:

Very glad to hear everyone is OK. I wish you the best of luck in finding a new place.

Yes, let us know when things settle down a bit, we'll get a group together for a Paragon run.

Andy

Glad to hear that everyone is okay... just keep in mind that as much as it sucks, it could've been far worse. I wish you all the luck in finding a great new home.

Good to hear that everyone is ok, sucks that it happened but luckily it wasnt worse. Your story got me thinking, I should probably invest in some of that insurance.

glad to hear the most important stuff is ok, I did nothing saturday exceot recover from drinking friday night.

thanks for all the support guys... now that i have to sift through everything that my "packrat-type" personality has brought me i have one thing to say... HOLY $HIT I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF!!!!!!!!!!
and most of it is going right into trash bags....
i can deal with it but everything but the big furniture in th ekids' room is going right to the trash too.... the fire was right below their room and thats where the smoke was worst... all the stuffed buddies... the books... bedding... mattresses... i am going to feel soooo guilty when i go in there and park my dump trailer under the window outside... but i am trying to "spin" it a lil for them to make it feel like a big step toward growing up and getting on with our lives after our other "losses".. (those of you that know me probably know what i'm reffering to) anyways... i want to have it cleared out by the end of the weekend so we can get back on track.....
thanks again for the support...

mike

Mike,

I wish I could help you out man. I too had an emotionally draining weekend.

If you need someone to talk to, scream at, take out some agression on or whatever, the offer's there.

In case you can't find my #, check your PMs

Hang in there buddy, things will get better