Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day is a day that brings up all types of memories and I want to regale you with one more.

After we were married my wife and I decided to spend Thanksgiving at home, instead of trying to visit both families, which we did the first couple of years. Both of us have jobs that necessitate us working the day after Thanksgiving, as well as that weekend.

For our first Thanksgiving at home, we invited my Mom and Dad over for a breakfast of waffles, one of my Dad’s favorites. We’d hit my wife’s parents that afternoon for dessert. My folks made the drive of 35 miles (this will be important in a few minutes), to our place, announcing on arrival that my Dad had been sick to his stomach all the way over. I should have recognized this as an indication of the day. I didn’t.

As this was going on, my wife informed me that when the clothes washer was draining, the opposite was happening in the bathtubs, they were filling. No problem, I got out the plunger, obviously over optimistic and knowing nothing about plumbing, and tried to clear the drains. In a word, HAH! Things weren’t looking quite as bright at this point.

And, Mom and Dad decided they needed to go home, but, one of us would have to drive their car, which meant we needed a second car to get back home. On the 70 mile round trip I was glad we had decided on a quiet Thanksgiving, but it would still be a great day.

Arriving back home, to our standing water, I called a plumber to get the mess cleaned up, what the heck it was only Thanksgiving.  He worked diligently, eventually telling us there was no problem with the lines. Nope, it was our septic tank backing up into the house. That was a bit of news I hadn’t thought of at all, in my wildest thoughts.

A few phone calls and we had a septic cleaning truck lined up. I’m sure the neighbors had slight grins on their faces as they saw the pump truck pulling up that day. He assured us it would be quick, maybe 45 minutes to an hour. As he started working, we finished up in the kitchen, getting our turkey dinner ready.

I was in my office doing some work, and suddenly realized it was oddly quiet, no rumble from the pump truck. Walking out back I heard him on the phone. He smiled when I cam over and told me that the truck had broke down, it wasn’t pumping any more. But there was good news as well. They were sending out a tow truck to haul it back, and, they had another truck that he could then pick up, come back out, and finish pumping! A slight delay of maybe three or four hours.

What the heck, this day was taking it’s own course at this point. While we were waiting for the tow truck, (have you ever seen the size of a truck needed to tow a full sized truck), we sat out back with the driver, ate turkey sandwiches and had a pleasant visit. He had just moved here from Michigan and was a little homesick and lonely. It ended up being not only a memorable Thanksgiving, but an enjoyable one at that.

Eventually around 7:00 or so that night our septic tank was pumped out.  Dad called and was feeling better; my wife went to see her parents for dessert, and we wrapped up our first quiet Thanksgiving at home.

Happy Thanksgiving.