Wednesday, November 9, 2011

This really sucks!

Today started out good: Katrina got up on time and took a relatively short shower. I fixed her lunch. It was raining so we compromised about her broken jacket (no arguement!), she found her umbrella and went off to school. Then everything went sour.

I made my way downstairs to the office to check my email. When I stepped off the bottom step, there was a "sploosh." Not good. I turned on the light and there was a literal river making it's way across the basement floor: out of the office, across the family room and toward the laundry room. I played Lewis and Clark, and followed it upstream to find the source. Across the family room, into the office, and back into the closet - that same closet I was going to clean out on Thursday because it was starting to look like some hoarder's stash.

Back upstairs to put on some waterproof footwear (the wellies were closest) and grab some towels. By the time I got back downstairs, it occurred to me that 1) It's a good thing I just cleaned the laundry room, because that's where the water was headed, and 2) I need to make sure the shop vac is empty before I start sucking up water.

Once I started with the shop vac, it was quick work until I got to the closet. The water was still coming full speed ahead! So I kept sucking, and sucking. After about an hour it has slowed enough to where I could take a break, send a quick email to Karl, and breathe a sigh a relief that the water didn't get to the computer. A little detective work ensued to find the cause, as it was not really raining that hard. Sure enough, the gutter was clogged with leaves ("Oh, I guess I need to clean the gutters." says Karl), so there was a waterfall complete with a pool below, right at the source of our basement river.

There was nothing I could do (I'm too short to get the ladder down from the garage wall) except hope the rain would turn to snow sooner rather than later. My prayer was soon answered, but the puddle remained, and the water continued to flow. After two and a half hours of sucking (hee-hee, I said sucking again), it slowed enough to where I  could take a shower and get ready for work. I was 45 minutes late getting to work, but no-one seemed to be out shopping anyway.

Karl came home from work early, cleaned the gutter (at least in that spot anyway), took everything out of the closet, vacuumed up any remaining water, and started the fan and dehumidifier. I have my work cut out for me tomorrow!

Thursday update: Karl tells me that two giant maple leaves  somehow made their way under the gutter-guard and were blocking the downspout. TWO friggin leaves! I blame the squirrels.

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