The Aftermath

A lot of bad things happened on Monday.

I woke up with the "dizzies." My room was spinning.

But, I was watching Merrick, my grandson. "Papa...come play trucks with me." I couldn't stand up straight...let alone drive a play truck.

I was supposed to take Merrick to the airport to pick up his mother...my daughter. The dizziness forced my wife to go get her. I checked my patio for rain, and went to bed.

I woke up, and went to check on the rain. I live in a quad-level, so I went from level #4 to level #2. My first step (in socks) was a big fat squish. Like Merrick says..."That's not good." I opened the walk-out door to the patio. Big mistake. The water gushed in like a Class #5 rapids. No! No! No!

I ended up with 2 feet in the patio, and 2 feet in the basement. I was able to pump the water from the patio, but the basement wouldn't drain.

Stuff (read junk) everywhere. Wood, gourds, Christmas ornaments, Christmas tree, clothes. You name it...it was floating.

First...the bad. Furnace...burned out. Washer...washed away. Dryer...will dry no more. 2 table saws, and a drill press...tooled out. 2 rooms of carpet...nappy no more.

Finally...the good. The water restoration company wanted a thousand dollars just to extract the water from the carpet. My son-in-law Benton and I had it all out of the house this morning in 2 hours. Plus...since so many of my neighbors had issues...it kinda binds you together in a strange way. Plus plus...friend and family jump to your rescue. Shelley (who had weather issues of her own) delivered a de-humidifier. Add my 2 sisters, and 2 of my kids, and Uncle Steve...and you got yourself a work-force. Plus plus plus...Steve (our techno whiz) re-hooked our internet router.

Overview: Like my older sister said..."You got too much crap." (That's probably true.) Also...in the middle of the mini-disaster...you discover that "stuff" is just "stuff." It can all be replaced...all be repaired.

Please bear with me. I was already behind on Blip...and this doesn't help any. Still a lot of work to do.

The picture is of my dry living room. The garage is crammed like this, too.

I back-blipped the start of the storm on Monday...and got a cute squirrel yesterday.