More Water!

According to the news yesterday, it has been raining for 33 days in Seattle -- which is close to a record. (We get a lot of bad press about rain, but it's usually not like this.)

I woke at 2:10am this morning and checked my back entry. It was dry. I felt some misgivings, thought about putting some towels down, just in case, but went back to sleep. When will I learn to trust my intution??

This morning, I found water there. Not a great deal, but enough to get out Mr. Shop-Vac. I sucked it all up, and then made the mistake of opening the door. . . . Water began to stream in, and I closed it again immediately. The drain at the foot of the stairs in front of my door has been overwhelmed -- overwhelmed because the damn thing has no outlet. It fills up, spills over, and there's nowhere to go but under my door. I've tried duct-taping around the seams, but it won't make a good seal.

It's not raining hard right now, but I'm worried I may have to stay home from work today to 'man the pumps' -- because until it stops raining, and the water has drained or evaporated, there will still be no place for it to go.

To complicate matters, the Ex is working several hundred miles away. Usually I can count on him to empty the Shop-Vac when it gets full.

Gawd that sounds pathetic! But I'm glad I typed it, because otherwise I would have continued to be frustrated by the fact. I just need to stop vaccuuming earlier and empty the damn thing myself, while it's still light enough for me to lift. Fortunately, with the sewer system so recently roto-rootered, I should be able to simply empty it into the utility sink rather than have to traipse it up the back stairs and into the yard.

Why don't I have a decent pair of big rubber rain boots? I'm going to have to end up opening my door and letting the water in, bit-by-bit, so I can get it up and out, and that's going to be messy. Then I'll have to suck out that miserable excuse for a 'drain' so I can get a ahead of the problem.

I've just sent a message to my boss to tell her I won't be in this morning so I can 'man the pumps.' Fortunately, she's at an offsite today, and I got a lot of work done yesterday (9+ hours worth).

Holding the Line

The rain has stopped -- temporarily. The weather report predicts continuing rain for the next 3-5 days. At least it's not torrential downpours.

I've gotten ahead of the drain, so there's no longer a pool on my doorstep or rivulets coming through into my entryway. The Ex's SO and I have put down towels, and she's going to change them and Shop-Vac as necessary throughout the day so I can get to work.

My Ex has been talking for two years about getting a pump to put in that drain, with a long hose to take water away from that area of the yard. The Ex's SO and I had a chat this morning about how we're going to motivate him to actually make the pump manifest this weekend.

As I type that, I realize again this morning that I've been waiting for him to take care of it, relying on The Man, Who Knows More About These Things Than I Do, to fix it for me. Why have I never even gone to Home Depot myself to look at these pumps and find out how hard it is to install? Do I really not have other friends or family to call on to help me install it, if it does turn out to be beyond my capacity? Even if I took the initiative to bring one home, it would put me that much further ahead and make it more likely that someone -- him, me, a friend -- would get it installed.

I don't usually think of myself as a Cinderella, waiting to be rescued, but it's becoming harder to avoid facing a few unpleasant facts about my behavioral patterns.

Now I have to jump in the shower (although the last thing I want to do is run more water through any system!) and get to work.