My poor husband

[Another really long post. My apologies.]

Steven's job right now is with a carpet-cleaning company. They also do carpets repairs, floods, etc.

They take turns working Saturdays and being on-call after hours. Last weekend it was Husband's turn to be on-call.

They don't always get called in to take care of a flood, but Sunday afternoon when he was on his way home from Church he got a call -- a sewer had backed up and flooded two neighboring apartment units. Because it was a pretty large problem, another person was also called in to help.

He left our house at about 1:30 to go to the job, and they finished it around 7. (They were probably there for about 5 hours.)

As he was about to leave to head home, another call: another flood. Thankfully, this one was much smaller and did not involve a sewer backup.

He got home around 9.

So, this week has been a long one already, and very exhausting.

A couple of days ago the boss let everyone know that they would all be working on Saturday, at least for the morning. An apartment complex had called needing all their units cleaning...and the only day they could do it was Saturday.

Saturday is our anniversary. The boss happened to know this and told Husband that he was hoping they'd all be able to work together and get it done by noon and then he could have the rest of the day. [I really hope that works out. We've got a few plans, like going to the temple and maybe doing some baby shopping.]

Anyways, this all adds up to 3 weeks of work with only two days off (last Saturday and this Sunday).

And then guess what happened.

You'll never believe it.

At about 10:15 tonight, Steven got a phone call.

There are NINE HOUSES in Midvale that are flooded, and everybody is getting called in to go take care of that.

NINE HOUSES.

In MIDVALE. That's a half hour away.

I grabbed some drinks and all the granola bars and other snacks I could find and stuck them in a plastic bag for Husband to take with him. He left about 10 minutes after he got the call.

They all met at the shop, and he called me at 11 to say that they were just leaving and heading towards the highway.

He also gave me some more details. Some of them are rather graphic, so you can skip the next paragraph if you'd like.

Not only are there nine houses that are flooded, all in the same neighborhood, but it's because a sewer line backed up. (He doesn't think it broke.) Apparently, some of these houses have a good TWO FEET* of raw sewage in them. LOVELY. Don't you think? Ugh.
[*This seems like a lot to me...maybe he meant two inches, I don't know.]

There are 6 people and 6 trucks on their way to Midvale right now. They'll split up the houses between them.

Remember how it took Husband and one other guy about 5 hours to do two apartments the other day? These are HOUSES. And they're in a lot worse shape than those apartments were.

Needless to say, everything Husband is wearing tonight will probably be BURNED.

He just bought new work shoes on Monday because he threw out the ones he wore on Sunday.

He didn't wear those...he found an old pair of shoes that will do the trick and that he doesn't really need. Not work shoes, just old shoes. But sturdy.

So basically, if all goes well [if none of the trucks break down, Husband says], they will be there for probably at least 8 hours.

And tomorrow's schedule? VERY BUSY. There's a 6am job and several 9am jobs, and some of those might have to be canceled.

And then they get to work all day. On NO SLEEP. And it's Friday tomorrow, but that doesn't even offer any comfort because they ALL have to work on Saturday as well.

Poor guys.

At least they will all be well-compensated. Oh yes. (Pretty sure that's the only reason why the boss took this flood job in the first place.)

I'm going to try not to wait up, but it's going to be hard. Especially when I find it easier to relax when I'm not alone and trying to sleep.

And tomorrow is my early day -- my shift at the temple starts at 6 am.

At least I can come home and take a nap.