flood

Read about our new water resort here.
Is this about:
Time for Laundry?
Time to Wash the floor?
Our new Water Resort?
You decide.

A few years ago, we (Elaine, Beverly, and I) moved into our new house. Nice, fairly new big house, on a slope. Down hill. The upstairs bedrooms are actually downstairs. Our daughter's room is downstairs, under the last portion of the garage and the kitchen. Our bedroom is upstairs. (Ain't that always the way, send the kid down to the dungeon.) A year after we moved in, on a Monday, it rained here. Our driveway slopes down hill, into our garage. There's a drain, in the middle of the flat section of the driveway, before the garage, which works okay when testing it. However, in the real world, with leaves covering it up, it lacks a tad. Innocently, I went down to Beverly's room that morning, to get her sheets to wash, and heard water dripping. It's not supposed to drip there. On top of the bed. 'Course, it did presoak the sheets, a recommended step in some folks laundry procedure.

But, I ran upstairs, to the garage, and found the newly discovered Lyons River, running through the garage, from the door to the back of the garage, against the wall. Unfortunately, the wall prevented it from running clear through the house, and out the back, soaking all of the carpets on the way. Beverly's bed, was the lucky recipient instead.

Opening the garage door, I found Lake Lyons, in front of it, 3-4 inches deep, around the clogged drain. So, I scraped the leaves off of the drain, with my shoe, that being the thing closest at hand, and the leaves promptly returned to guard duty, preventing any significant amount of water from flowing down, and thus disturbing any wild life that might be residing there. A few more scrapes, did succeed in getting a flow going, and filling my shoes, thus further reducing the depth of the pond.

Next, (after ditching (bad word) my now complaining shoes), I got all of the towels I could find, and liberally distributed them around the floor of the garage. Worked well. In a few minutes, with the river diverted, the towels did soak up the water, grime, etc., that had occupied the floor. (And now they were presoaked as well.) So, I started the laundry, towels first, and went to see what I could do about the bed.

I got real lucky at this point - honest. I had caught the flow in the early stages, so there were dry spots here and there in the carpet. However, the water bed (yes, she has a water bed) was for real, now. So, I got all of the waste baskets, bowls, and even laundry baskets, and we had a line up, under the dripping beam. (More good news, there's a beam on the ceiling under the end of the garage, that concentrated all of the dripping water.)

I tried to towel the ceiling, but that was a losing cause. At any rate, I called Elaine, who was at work, to clue her in on the good news, concerning the new water resort in our neighborhood, which she took really well. Next, I turned up the thermostat, got the fan, and took the sheets, etc., off of the bed. Moved washed towels to the dryer, put more in the washer. Moved some of the boxes, and stuff from the inside pond, to higher ground, elsewhere in the garage. Went to do some more stuff downstairs.

In the now fairly dry garage, I next, took the towels out of the dryer, and put them into the bedroom. Opened the washer to move second load of towels to the dryer, and water came spilling out. Seems that the front loading washer stopped in the middle. Never happened before. Soooooooo, I stuffed the slopping wet towels back in (and they tried to come out again) and shut the door. Now the floor was wet AND soapy. Good thing. It really needed washing - I guess. So, I went to get the dry towels, and put them back on the floor. I'm getting good at this procedure now - really got the routine down - no stopping to wonder what to do next. Where's "America's Stupidest Videographer" when you need him?

Elaine finally got home, with a wet vac, and floor blower, and we finally did get Beverly's floor somewhat dry. Beverly got to sleep in another bed, but while getting ready, said, "Dad, the floor in my closet is wet." (Oh, she has 2 closets, one for clothes, and one next to her bed for toys and stuff. (Poor deprived child:) I hadn't looked in there, and yes, it was wet. And the carpet pieces, under the shelves FULL of toys and books. Soooooooooo, we used the wet vac, and set up the fan, with the carpet propped up to allow air to get under it somewhat. It's now Tuesday afternoon. Stuff is still strewn about the garage, and the fan is still going in the closet. Maybe I can get my shower soon.

So, how was your Monday? Kind of boring you say. Oh I'm sorry. Maybe, into your life some excitement will soon fall. I certainly wouldn't want to be greedy and have it all.