Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Water Drama

I was all set to write a rage-y blog last night, because one of the men that I work with (he is in another town, so it’s all over phone and e-mail) called me and asked, “So am I having the prego moment, or are you?” Excuuuse me?? Just because you don’t pay attention and aren’t clear in your e-mails does NOT mean that I can’t understand you simply because I am pregnant. But then, I decided to go to bed, (because I was worn out from the hating) instead of write my angry blog.

And as I am settling in, all snuggled up, Fonz at my side, I see a flash of light and CRASH BAM BOOM!! And then pounding rain. Normally, I love summer storms…but I don’t like ones that go on for SIX HOURS. Needless to say, I did not fall asleep.

But that’s not the kicker. The power kept going on and off, and around 2:00am it went off for the last time. I asked my Workaholic ever-so-smart husband if we should be concerned about water in the basement, you know, since it had been POURING RAIN for 6 HOURS. No, he says. As long as the power keeps flashing on and off, we’ll be fine. Never mind that it had already been off for 15 minutes.

Then around 2:30am, a knock on the door. Workaholic sits up in bed (I guess he fell right to sleep…not me!) and can’t figure out what it is. Duh…it’s our neighbor, who has water in his newly finished basement, wanting to know if we had a generator. (Yes…I knew this before even answering the door, because I am a genius). So Workaholic is shocked that our neighbor has water, and heads down the basement stairs, and all I hear is Splish. Oh dear. Oh shit. Oh dear. Oh shit. What do I do now???

I have to say that I am incredibly impressed with what I saw taking place over the next 4 hours with my husband. With one simple sentence, “It’s time to go to work.” he was off. Him and the neighbor jump in the van to go get a generator, (because obviously, if you own a generator, the most sensible place to keep it is in a warehouse, 15 minutes from your house), and drive through 3 foot floodwaters to get back. They set it up, and Workaholic grabs a saw and some 2x4s to create shims to raise anything that is sitting on our basement floor. (fortunately there was only 2-3 inches of water). Then we clear out the closets, take off the doors so the bottoms don’t rot, and he heads back to the warehouse for fans and another pump. When he gets back, he goes to the most wonderfulest store on earth, (for those of you who may be confused at to which store that is, it’s the Home Depot…they normally open at 6am, but they opened early today) to get a water-getter-outer for the carpet. (at this point, at 4:30am, I finally get to sleep)

As of now…he is still working. And yes, we do have a battery back-up for the sump pump, and the only answer I got was, “It couldn’t keep up.” I think I’ll let it go at that...he’s earned it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My boss MR. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS highly recommends a gas powered or propane powered generator. He says the battery powered ones suck, because like Matt said...they either can't keep up or they don't work when you need 'em. Just be sure if you use a gas or propane powered generator that the exhaust is funneled OUTSIDE or you'll all die. We dont' have a generator at all and speaking of sump pumps...guess we'd better check our crawl space tonight. Not that my workaholic is mechanically inclined like yours... Not! :)