Up at 3:00 am and Not Happy About It

Brett and were awakened at 3:00 am by the sound of gurgling coming from the bathroom.  Either The Blob was coming out of our toilet or something worse.  Brett, being a sweet husband, got up to take a look.  Swearing, loud swearing, followed.  The kind where you hop out of bed faster than you thought your old bones were capable of and rush to see what's going on. 

I saw water pouring over the shower step.  Not dripping or a trickle.  It was a torrent.  Niagara Falls in our bathroom.  We immediately rolled up the braided area rug and tried to block the flow of water onto the bedroom carpet.  I grabbed every towel in the house. 


Brett went to the garage and discovered that the water softener was "regenerating" -- purging itself.  Normally, the water would flow from the unit straight into the septic tank.  The septic tank wasn't accepting deposits.  Brett opened a release valve/pipe in the garden and water gushed out.  ...and stopped gushing in our bathroom.  Phew!  That just left a huge mess to clean up.  The water covering the floor was an inch deep and the smell wasn't exactly pleasant.

Brett went down to the barn and got the shop vac.  He vacuumed up the standing water while I worked on drawing water out of the carpet with towels.  (I did get permission from him to put up the following picture.  This is 3:00am flooded bathroom attire - he did have his skivies on, I swear).

 

We finished cleaning up as much as we could and tried to go back to sleep but couldn't.  It was starting to get light outside, Brett was thinking about the septic tank, and I was thinking about washing all those towels - and the smell...  We gave up and got back out of bed.  We agreed that the septic tank needs to be emptied and that we didn't want to pay an emergency or week-end call out fee so we'll schedule that for next week.

This afternoon, Brett left for Colorado to visit his daughter.  How convenient for him; he gets access to working facilities.  Actually, he wanted to stay home and suffer with me but I told him to go.  We have a toilet in the barn, we have a washing machine in the barn, and we have a pool for bathing.  And its summer so jumping in the pool is not a big sacrifice (especially if timed to occur during a hot flash). 

Before we can have the septic emptied, we have to find the tank.  This is a problem.  We've looked for it before.  When we built the house, nine years ago, the septic tank location was moved quite a few times.  The plans don't agree on its location.  We know it is somewhere on the east side of the house but is it under the gravel parking area, my garden, the orchard, or the lawn?  Brett said he would dig around and see if he could find it before leaving for the airport.

Bella felt he needed moral support so she jumped over the goat fence to join him. 

I am hoping for a quiet night tonight.