Wuthering Hyders

The New Pool


Last night was fun. (If you know me well enough, you realize that if I start with a phrase like this and we didn't have a date last night, the night in question was actually nowhere near fun.) It started with the tornado siren across the street going off. Oddly enough, it's not loud at all and I didn't even know it was going off until my entire family started calling me to ask if we were in the basement. It was bedtime, so I just grabbed the kids' blankets, pillows, and stuffed dogs from their beds and herded everyone downstairs. Of course, there was stuff to take care of outside, too. I told the kids to stay in the basement and watch television while I went out into the pouring rain and lightning to stack up to patio chairs and bring in my favorite flower box. I also had to collect all of the toys in the sandbox and a few random things from around the yard. The weird thing is, I LIKED this part. It's always given me a strange sort of thrill to be out in the middle of the storm when the tornado sirens are going off. The rain streaming down my face feels cleansing and the thunder makes me brave. And, no, I've never even come close to being struck by lightning. Not that I know of...

After the sirens stopped, I figured we might as well all sleep downstairs anyway, just in case. I turned on an animated movie and Perrin quickly fell asleep. I started getting tired and went upstairs to take my meds. As I was standing at the kitchen window, the lightning flashed and I caught a glimpse of the backyard. After I picked my eyeballs out of the garbage disposal and popped them back into my head, I went upstairs to get a better view from our bedroom window. @$#^#&%#^%@, was all I could say. Well, that and $&#*%^&*@. As I've mentioned here before, large bodies of water freak me out. Especially when they're NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THERE! Most of our backyard was underwater. It was almost up to the steps of our deck. Many of you have not seen our backyard, but trust me, that's CLOSE. I called Heath so I could have a mini panic attack on the phone and as I was in the basement on the phone with him I was watching the water out the window and didn't notice the water creeping ever closer to my feet. Then, I stepped in a cold puddle and said some more naughty words. (Quietly, mind you, as Abby was still awake. I told Heath what was happening and got off the phone to see if there was anything I could do. There wasn't really so I did what any smart girl would do. I called Daddy. At this point, there was standing water in the corner where the computer was and the wall to the north had wet carpet at least two feet from the wall. By the time my dad got there, the carpet around the entire edge of the basement was wet and the utility closet had three or four inches of standing water in it.

My dad uncovered the sump pump from under the built in desk that was screwed to the top of the area that housed it (I mean, what the ****? Who makes something so necessary so inaccessible?) and tried to get it working. His efforts were futile. He called on a friend of his who is now my hero. He brought over and installed a brand new sump pump in the middle of the night. He didn't even mention until he got there that his birthday had been the day before and he'd just gotten in from his celebrating when my dad called. He said something about how much he'd been drinking and apologized if he wasn't quite himself so I offered him another drink. After a lot of frustration and a good bit of swearing, he and my dad managed to get the old rusted sump pump out of the hole where it had been SEALED IN with foam insulation (Anyone care to venture a guess as to WHY?) and get the new one in and working.

It was after three in the morning by the time Denny and my dad got things stabilized and headed home. I called Heath again to fill him in and then tried to get some sleep in before the kids got up. Of course, I couldn't shut the kittens in the basement so they were eating my hair at the crack of dawn. Heath and my dad used their shop vacs to suck no fewer than 168 gallons of water out of the carpet. It's still pretty wet, but at least it isn't making puddles around our feet when we walk on it anymore. Denny also let us borrow a couple of big fans to help dry things up. Like I said, he's my new hero.

Since I didn't get much sleep, my nose is all drippy today like I have allergies or something. Just enough to be irritating. I must still be attractive though. Heath propositioned me before he went to bed, as did some random poster on Craigslist. Seriously? What makes you think that your simple reply of "Let's ****" is going to get a response from me? Can't I at least get dessert first? At least tell me you think I'm hot or that I sound intelligent. That fact that I use better grammar than 90% of Craigslist posters should have given you a clue that, just maybe, there's a brain in my head and it might take a bit of effort to get to the point where I even ALLOW you to ask me to ****. I appreciate your being so straightforward, though. At least there's no doubt what you were saying.

So, there's my fun-filled night/day. Think of me as you enjoy your nice, DRY basement.