No Indiana Jones For Us!

When I think of Memorial Day, I think of spending time with loved ones, barbeques, not going to work, and of course being outside. This Memorial Day I did 1 out of the 4 things on my list. The only thing I was able to enjoy was not going to work, but that might have been better than what Steve and I actually did on our Memorial Day. Everyone sit back and relax for a story is about to start! About a month ago, the association for our complex sent out a flier telling the residents that on May 8 someone would be coming around our complex to take out the covers over the swamp coolers and to also fill the tanks with water (I guess that's what they were doing, I'm just not really sure!) Well, Steve and I were not home on this particular day because like any American we were at work. We were very lucky that we have had a really cool spring so we haven't turned on our swamp cooler until recently. When we turned it on it was making this weird noise, wasn't cooling down our place, and if we had it on long enough we would start smelling smoke. Not a good sign. So the Sunday before Memorial Day, Steve and our good friend Darin decided after church to go onto the roof and see what the problem was with our swamp cooler. They were up there for a while cleaning it off and trying to readjust the water level. When they finally finished our swamp cooler was fixed! I guess the problem was that there was so much dirt around the tubing and everything else on our swamp cooler that water wasn't able to flow. Now that the problem was fixed Steve and I thought our troubles with our swamp cooler were over. Boy, was I wrong! That night we had gone over to Steve's parents for dinner and we didn't get back until almost 11. Well, when we walked into our home Steve thought he heard water running somewhere. We listened and looked everywhere and finally realized it was coming from outside and it was our swamp cooler overflowing! How could that be? We thought we had fixed the problem, but apparently Steve and Darin set the water level at the wrong level and the water was able to overflow. Steve was really nervous about it overflowing all night so he hurried and called Darin to see if he could help him fix the problem. Now understand it was 11:30 at night when Steve called Darin and I was getting pretty tired and I really didn't understand why it had to be fixed now. I guess Steve didn't want our place to get flooded which is a good reason, but still couldn't this be done in the morning? Darin is such a good friend that he said yes so they once again went up to the roof. They were only up there for about 15 minutes when I heard a "thud" noise. I didn't think anything of it until all of a sudden these loud footsteps were running down the stairs, then I knew something was wrong. Within a matter of minutes there was a loud banging on the door, when I opened it Steve was standing there and the only thing he said was, "Darin fell!" My heart jumped into my throat and the first thought that popped into my head was, "Do I need to call the police?" I hurried and followed Steve, but he was headed up the stairs not around the building. That was odd, if Darin had fallen wouldn't he have ended up outside? I didn't have time to ask so I just followed Steve upstairs, all the way up to the 3rd floor and into our neighbors home. When I walked into their place, right away I saw Darin covered with insulation and dirt standing in their kitchen! Darin had fallen all right, but not off the roof, he had fallen into our neighbors kitchen ceiling! It was a mess everywhere! Their whole kitchen was covered with insulation, not only that now there was a big, gaping hole in their ceiling! What a sight! Darin was so embarrassed and Steve and I felt so bad. The worst part of it all wasn't the big whole in their ceiling, our neighbors are from Serbia and didn't understand a thing of english! Try explaining to Serbians what you were doing on the roof at 11:30 at night! Now that is really confusing! We did the best we could to explain the situation and how we were going to fix the hole. I think they understood (hopefully). We cleaned everything up for them and told them in english and some hand gestures that we would come back in the morning to patch the hole and to fix everything up. That is exactly what Steve and Darin did (notice I said Steve and Darin)! They went to Home Depot at 7 am to get supplies and they did not finish the project until 4 that afternoon. I did help somewhat with the cleaning and of course the running back and forth to Home Depot for things they had forgotten to buy. Why can't men make lists? What a long day! Even though this project took the whole day to complete we were just happy that we had finished it and didn't have to come back for anything else. It was a very memorable day and Steve and Darin learned a very important lesson. When you are walking around the attic of a building DO NOT step on the sheetrock, step on the beams!