Heard often over the weekend…. “isn’t it ever going to stop raining?” It rained here for 4 days straight. It let up to a sprinkle or drizzle sometimes, others, it just poured down, but didn’t stop at all until late Sunday night. Talk about gray and dreary. We were all happy to see the sun this morning! 
So, let’s see. Where to start. A couple of minor things from the week. Princess and I went to my baby bro’s house every day to feed their kitty, as he and my sil were taking a tour of New England. I spent lots of time on the phone with eldest daughter, who is trying desperately to get her hubby to agree to move up here – she’s tired of being so far away from the family, and wants out of the South. I’ve still been job hunting, while trying to hold on to my unemployment benefits. They say I’ve been on longer than average – I’ve only gotten five checks, so I have a difficult time believing that in today’s economy, that’s out of the ordinary.
Hubby’s truck was out of commission most of last week – just needed a new battery, but we had to wait until the weekend to try to get it fixed. As we spent most of Saturday at the laundromat (during which time hubby had to leave to go rescue my bro, sil, niece and nephews as they’d hydroplaned on the expressway and slammed into a cement barrier… they’re all fine, fortunately, though their car isn’t), we didn’t get around to taking care of the truck until Sunday. My mom picked the girls up, so when hubby got home from church, we headed off (in the rain) to the store for a battery. Even with an umbrella, got drenched going in and out of the store. Couldn’t find a parts book, so consulted with a technician about which battery to buy. Drove home (in the rain, noting all of the flooded yards on the way, commenting on how thankful we were our house was on high ground), and attempted to put the new battery in the truck (in the rain – sensing a pattern here? ). I’m playing “Michael Jackson’s attendant,” holding the big golf umbrella up over the hood of the truck while hubby pulls the old battery out and drops the new battery in, only to find that the auto parts guy had sold us the wrong battery… shite. Figures, lol. So, we were cold and wet, but it was too late to get back to the store to exchange it that night. We needed to go pick the girls up, anyway. We were looking around the yard, with all the rain coming down, and noticed that the pond, which had been nearly dried up, was full again, and there was standing water in a couple of low spots elsewhere. I told hubby he should go take a look in the basement, make sure the sump pump was working, as once in a while, the float sticks. While he did that, I puttered in the kitchen. When he didn’t come back up right away, I went to the top of the basement stairs… and saw him wading through nearly calf-deep water. Whoo-hoo! The float had stuck on the sump, but getting that running didn’t even come close to solving the problem. Our basement is two levels, one about 5 inches lower than the other. Of course, the sump pump is located on the higher level! (And the rain was still coming down. The ground was so saturated it just couldn’t hold anything else, so the water was still coming in.)
We had to go get the girls, so we headed off to do that, knowing the clean-up was going to take a while, so it would have to wait until we got them home. On the way to my folks’, my brother called, and jokingly said, “so, what did you do to our basement?” I replied, “probably the same thing I did to my own,” and he started laughing. They came home from vacation to find their basement flooded, too. They live two miles nearly directly west of us, and have the same style basement we do, with two different levels. He actually has two sump pumps (which we’re going to do in our basement, too, when sump pumps ever get back in stock in the local stores), but the one on the lower level was a pedestal/platform type, not submersible, and the water got high enough that it covered it – kept popping the circuit breaker. He’d gotten his cleaned up – rigged the other sump to be able to move it around – and offered to let us use his shop vac, which is twice the size of ours.
Anyway, it ended up that he and my dad both came over to help clean up the water down there. It took a long time, even after they rigged our sump to travel. And there was fun stuff to deal with, too – bro was using a snow shovel to catch floating dead mice (ewww! And never mind all of the floating mouse poop and other unidentified floating objects…). There is a strange make-shift room down there that none of us know what it was used for, and all of us are not sure we want to know – various family members call it the “S&M room” or the “snuff room” – we think (hope!) that maybe it was just where the teen boy that lived here went to smoke pot… but I digress. The room is completely covered inside and out – including the ceiling – with fabric. The floor consists of wooden pallets covered by an area rug. We’re pretty sure the mice had lots of nests down under there, as that’s where they seemed to be coming from. We’ve got to get down there and tear that whole room out so we can avoid the mold that is bound to develop from it being soaked the way it was (the floor was completely underwater, and the fabric soaked water up a foot or two).
Then, at one point, I heard my dad say, “there’s a dead rat over here!” (oh, joy!) Well, it turns out that it wasn’t a rat – it was a squirrel, that had somehow managed to drown itself in the sump cistern, and was stuck down under the pump. After they pulled the pump, it floated up, and was very, very nasty! The fur was off, and it was partially decomposed. When they managed to scoop it up, the front of it ruptured, and everything came falling out, including a poop-filled colon, which, of course, emptied… so there was even more fun stuff floating in the water. (EEEWWWWW!) And talk about stinky. Gag. Yes, btw, when the water is completely cleaned up, I’m going down there armed with a couple of super-sized bottles of bleach!
Our town was one of the ones in our state that got high amounts of rain. In a 48 hour period from late Friday night to Sunday night, we got 6.16″ of rain. That’s not including what we got in the two days of rain prior to that. Only two other cities here got more than we did – one got about a half inch more, another got nearly 9″ in that same 48 hours. Most everyone else got less than 5, or even less than 3. Anywhichway, that’s still a bunch of rain!
While it was a lot of work, we weren’t complaining at all. First, we didn’t have anything down there yet, just two of our dining room chairs. Second, it kind of goes with the territory of home ownership. And third (most importantly) – it was just water in the basement. In light of what people down south are having to deal with, what’s to complain about?
So, that was my weekend. There were a couple more things I wanted to mention, but I’ll have to get back to it, as my dad just called to let me know he is on his way over. We’re going to go do some grocery shopping together. ~ttfn!
