Monday, August 16, 2010

The Great Flood of 2010... aka How I went Boating in my Basement

Hey y'all. 

It's the Monday after the Great Flood of 1-0. 

That doesn't sound right. How about "The Great Flood of Ten".

Nope. The Great Flood of Oh-Ten. 

Forget it. I can't even get lucky on the name of the flood. Yes, welcome to the pity party.  

So, it's 1:00 a.m. on Friday morning, and I hear something that sounds like a waterfall. Since we don't have one of those "Nature Sounds" machines, I know this is gonna suck. 

We race downstairs to find this:

This picture does not begin to capture the scope of the disaster. 

A sprinkler pipe burst just outside the window, and the entire window well was filled with water. It was spraying through the bottom of the window at this point, cascading down the wall to where it splashed playfully into the lagoon at the bottom.

(Apparently we were fortunate the window didn't shatter. Lucky us.)

I love what disasters reveal to us about our personalities. Sam was freaking out, because he hates water. Literally, he's had this exact nightmare for years, so for him, it was as if his worst nightmare had come to life. Here's a depiction of him.
(Sam. Every time he freaks out, he grabs a bottle of ketchup and starts shaking it)

Thankfully, in my worst nightmares, I've been shot in the head, probed by aliens, kidnapped, beaten, and the best one: I imploded due to implementing the wrong technique when popping a giant zit. Never dreamed about floods. 

Sam was running around shouting expletives, so I guess it was my turn to be the voice of reason. I tried to think of words of wisdom, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was: "Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'!"

It worked. Because Stephen King knows his stuff. 

Once Sam was able to speak to me using words that didn't start with F and end in CK (Frederick), I ducked outside, took out my cell phone, and called my mom. (She was in Cedar City. Strangely, she was asleep.) I don't know what I was expecting her to do about it, but I'm really not used to being the lame-a** "Voice of Reason" and so I had to talk to an actual voice of reason. (I just play one on tv).

Thankfully, we know a kick-butt disaster guy, who showed up on our porch the next morning with one of these beauties:

Attached to the machine was this guy:

 (Jud Hanks. Superman owner of Nautica Cleaning)

He would've been here earlier, but he had to drive that thing all the way from West Jordan. (It's okay. It's street legal.)

After spending the night baling out water, I figured Jud and Sam had things under control. So I packed my bags, grabbed Kid C, and headed down to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, to get my fix of men in tights.


And left Sam to deal with this:
Really, I think we were both exactly where we each wanted to be.

How was all y'all's weekend? Any disasters?

*Added: Keep this Saturday free (the 21st) for the annual Writing for Charity event. Great chance to meet authors, and hobnob with fellow writers. And it's for a good cause. And reasonably priced! Click here for more info

17 comments:

  1. Oh boy. I live in fear of that too. We have a sump pump in our new house and while that should make me feel better, it actually worries more more knowing that we need a sump pump. Biggest disaster of the weekend for me was teaching my primary class. LOL!

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  2. That's awful, I'm so sorry. :(

    I hope to see you on Saturday (I'm just going to the evening part). Hope your week is better than your weekend!

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  3. This happened to me once! In High School my bedroom was in the basement and the exact same thing happened... tons of my stuff was ruined by water, and cleaning it was just a disaster. I hope it all cleans up well for you guys!

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  4. Paula- between a flooded basement and teaching primary, I'd choose flooded basement every time.

    Sara- can't wait to catch up on Saturday!

    Georgia- I've discovered that water is truly the spawn of satan.

    And oh yeah, I guess it gives us life too. Whatevs.

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  5. Wow. I'm sorry to hear about The Great Disaster. But how was the Shakespearean Festival? What did you see?

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  6. Jenilyn- we saw Much Ado about Nothing. It was fabulous, and the guy who played Benedick was hilarious. I highly recommend it for all flood victims.

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  7. Oh sheesh...that royally blows! If my place ever flooded, I'd start doing laps...but then again, I'm a swimmer haha :)

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  8. So, what was salvageable (sp?) and what was garbage? I hope most things were able to be saved.

    I'll see you Saturday (at least at the evening event).

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  9. Melissa- it totally blows! I shouldve considered swimming. It made a perfect kiddie pool.

    Jenni- the carpet should be safe. We're crossing our fingers on the wall. The crackers that had been under the couch for three years were, unfortunately, not saved.

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  10. So sorry that happened to you! Good that you caught it relatively early.

    Three years ago, we went to Utah for two weeks. When we got back, SURPRISE! The first floor of our house was flooded and had been for the entire time. A supply line to the toilet upstairs had burst. Thankfully, it was clean water. Still, not a fun thing to happen.

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  11. Nicole- That's the worst! Was everything pretty much beyond saving?

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  12. Man, that really stinks. The flooding, not the men in tights. I'd have left, too.

    I gave you an award on my blog. Drop by to see it.

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  13. Leisha- I won an award? Wooo Hooo! I'd like to thank my parents for having me, and Al Gore for inventing the internet, and my 8th grade typing teacher for never giving up on a girl from the wrong side of I-215...

    I'm forgetting someone. Oh yeah, Sam. You are my ambassador of kwan.

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  14. That's awful, but it could always be much worse. I was taking one of my architectural exams, when the sewer backed up into my gramma's beach house (where we were staying). Talk about the flood from ick! Thank goodness I had finished getting ready (early) because it started in the shower and moved on from there... It was REALLY awful. Luckily my hubby took care of it and I left him there to tackle my exams. Oddly, I did pass them. Goes to show that sometimes stress and catastrophe can be a good thing!

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  15. Ick. What a pain.

    Won't be at the charity thing this week... will be recovering from camping.

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  16. Una- Argh. Good thing for hubbies, right?

    Britt- We'll miss you. Hope you survive girls' camp!

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  17. lol
    NOT girl's camp, THANK HEAVENS.
    Bear Lake with my kids...

    Wait. That might be just as bad....

    We'll see if I live through the experience.

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