tsukino_akume | Life is smelly, but sweet right now.

Yesterday people showed up to drain the septic tank. Brother destroyed the half the lattice work around the porch trying to uncover it for them, only to discover that he didn't have to. They drained the tank, and made a new discovery:

There's a legion of roots growing into the tank. About a foot and a half worth.

What this means is that one of three things has to happen: 1) we throw in a bunch of chemicals in hopes that it kills them, 2) someone is hired to climb in the tank and clean them out by hand (Brother and I both responded to this news with 'That poor person. o.o;;;'), or 3) the entire septic tank has to be replaced.

They also learned that even though the septic tank is now empty, there's still a block somewhere in the house and drains need to be snaked. The guys offered to do it so they can scope the plumbing and see if there's any roots growing into the house through the pipes (which is a distinct possibility), but Brother decided to let his parents make the executive decision there.

So while the issue is somewhat taken care of, we still don't have plumbing. And the house still reeks, even after days of vacuuming water out of the carpet and trying to open all the windows and air out the house. It's incredibly sucky and cold, but thankfully we still have comfy beds to sleep on and lots of blankets. And Little Brother let us go over to his place for showers yesterday, which was awesome. ~~There were kitties and puppies all demanding my attention, which made it even better! ♥~~

Unfortunately, after spending the past five days conserving water as much as possible and everyone pitching in to work on getting the water out of the carpet, I woke up this morning to discover that the toilet overflowed. Again. It didn't go any further than it already was ~~thank gods~~, but it's like all the work we did never happened. I had to vaccum up more water just to be able to get into the bathroom and mop the 3x5 piece of linoleum. All told, I've vacuumed fourteen gallons of water today. Not fourteen trips to empty the carpet shampooer - fourteen gallons. My arms are KILLING me. x.x

But you know what? I don't care. I really, truly don't mind any of it.

And do you know why?

BECAUSE I AM LEGALLY ALLOWED TO DRIVE AGAIN.

Yesterday was also my appointment with the neurologist. He said that after two years of being seizure-free, one of which I haven't even been medicated*, he saw no reason why I shouldn't be allowed to drive again. He also said that I don't need to keep taking my seizure meds anymore, as I obviously don't need them. I'm not tossing them into the trash or anything, but he thinks it's entirely likely that my brain has healed itself. Even better, he pointed out that if no testing has ever found anything to explain them, he probably would be wasting both of our time signing me up for more. He did a reflex test, and promised that if we brought back the paper I need from the DMV saying that yes, I'm medically cleared to drive, he'd sign it.

Guess where our next stop was?**

So I now have a piece of paper that clears me to drive again and a driver's handbook. All I need is to read the book enough to refresh my memory for the written test (I mostly have trouble with remembering specific numbers they ask for), and a car to take the driving test in. (Not Brother's, because he has two giant cracks in the windshield.) $50 in fees, and I will be licensed again.

$50, and I can have my freedom back.

Even the mess dowstairs can't ruin just how happy I am right now.

* Two years without seizures. One year without medication. That blows my mind. ♥♥♥
** Okay, technically we went to the mall first. We both needed a restroom, and we wanted to stop by Game Stop so I could trade in my broken original DS now that I have my 3DS. I used the trade-in credit to buy the Dragon Valley expansion for Sims 3. 'Cause DRAGONS. ~~And elves, but the dragons are the obviously important part.~~