Collassal Catastrophe...almost

Oh wow have I had some disastrous days. The nice neighbors Jolly John and Janet whom I abundantly adore leave us in charge of their gigantic garden and yonder yard every sunny summer while they go on their various vacations. Is that some lame alliteration? Ok, I'll quit.

We get to eat all the veggies we can stomach and enjoy their beautiful yard. One of these years I'm going bold and hosting a garden party at their house. Just kidding. haha. The place is fabulous, all kinds of exotic and not so exotic plants and a fabulous pond with fish and flowing waters and oh just a breathtaking scene compared to our backyard with grass and one tree and token shrubs and small flower bed.

I've been stressing for a few days because I believe I hath killed their Gerber Daisy. I've been trying to resurrect it, I've googled about their care, I've asked others for advice but it's dead. And I'm taking it personally.



But the big disaster occurred today. The pond loses water and I have to fill it often. Last night I went over, fed the fish, took care of the plants and decided to put the hose in and start filling the pond. I told myself I'd come back after I watered my few plants. Well somehow in the course of the action I forgot about the pond. This morning I was up early to paint the boys room and thus took Ashley to daycare. I was backing out of our driveway and thought "why is the neighbors gate open?" Then suddenly the light bulb went on and I gasped and threw the van in park and ran to the yard expecting it to be a mini Lake Michigan and the fish to be floating out by the back fence belly up. My heart just sank and I muttered some expletives. But I'll be darned the yard was not flooded it has thankfully been terribly dry up here. The hose was still going and the pump and skimmer had stopped running obviously I'd flooded the breaker but it didn't look too bad. However, I couldn't find the fish and I didn't know just how jacked the pump was and oh fudge I figured my neighbors would kill me.

I called Joe and he was in the middle of crap at work and I just heard the life force sucked out of him when I told him. He just kind of said "I got nothing for ya" I think he was kind of in shock, he did later apologize for that; good hubby. I then decided to take Ashley to daycare after all and lamented to Jill about my plight. And she got me more worked up about Japanese Goldfish costing like $50 a piece and I'm thinking now OMG I'm going to be paying $500 in replacement fish plus a pump, and other electrical bizz. The Gerber Daisy was suddenly seeming like not much of a big deal. But I was thankful for Jill for the support unlike Fr. Bill who joked that the neighborhood varmints probably ate the fish when they did float down the yard. Aye yi yi.

I head home writing my story on the rotten neighbors website in my head and thinking if John and Janet don't kill me Joe certainly will. Thankfully I discover 3 fish in the pond alive. Yes! They have a ton of lily pads so the other 5 fish were hiding and eventually today I did see them all alive and well. I got up the nerve and called John in Chicago fearing the worst. And you know what? He laughed at me. :) He then said anything and everything in that backyard is replaceable and not to worry about it. They also were coming home today. I was trying my best to get the pump working again but it just wasn't happening. Me + electricity = stupid. Joe got home this afternoon and had it going again in no time. The neighbors then got home and we all had a good laugh about it. I guess John has forgotten about the hose a few times himself.

They brought the kids gifts and said they really should have brought something for me with all the stress I'd been through. Bless my neighbors dear hearts for not being mad at me. I guess in the grand scheme of life there are bigger fish to fry. Hiss Boo.