A Story About Water

Once upon a time, I had a leaky basement.  It was gross.  It made my whole house stink.  I hated it.

One day (last week), some magical people came over and made a big huge mess in the dirt in my yard.  But I didn't mind.

They were going to fix my leaky basement!  Yaaaay!

They started digging, and digging, and digging.

They found water.  Lots and lots of water.  When you dig next to a foundation, apparently you aren't supposed to find this much water just sitting there, wanting to get into your basement and stink up your house. 

This is a lot of water.  It just kept pouring in the trench that they dug.

So they pumped it out, put in a new drain tile system, some waterproofing on the foundation wall, and then pushed all the dirt back in.

It took them two days to do this work.  I was happy to have it fixed, but crabby about the money it was going to cost us.  Pretty crabby.

Then, last night, it began to rain.  It rained and rained.  The kids had a slip n slide in the front yard, with no $2.99 piece of plastic laying across the lawn.  They slid across the grass just as easily.  They had an absolute blast playing in the rain.

We went to bed a little nervous because we haven't yet had the topsoil delivered to cover all the clay/mud in the yard so we could plant grass seed.  We were afraid we'd wake to see something like this.  And we did.

Hopefully we didn't lose too much dirt into the neighbor's yard.  Sorry, neighbor.

I decided to go into work, even though my weather man told me I shouldn't.  They were reporting lots of water over many of the roads, and sinkholes were starting to form in places. 

I decided to head home early so I didn't get stuck downtown.  There was just so much water!

Quite a bit standing in our driveway - the ground was already so saturated, the water didn't have anywhere to go!

The gravel alongside the blacktop in another neighbor's driveway had washed away and formed a nice little waterfall.  Unfortunately all the gravel was now in the middle of the road.

Mysterious debris showed up in my front yard...

And cars zoomed by through the enormous puddle in front of my house TOO FAST!

And then the rain stopped.  Andy and I went for a walk in the neighborhood to check the level of our little trickling creek that is on our street.  The water was a little high.

I took the kids out to do a little gawking.

It was just unreal.  This is the stuff you see on the news.  Not something you see in your very own Target parking lot. 

I guess when life hands you lemons, you get your kayaks out and paddle around the parking lot?

This picture makes me so sad.  I can't imagine the amount of money it's going to take to rebuild this restaraunt and get it back open for business.

I have a hard time understanding why there are cars stuck in the middle of all of this water.  Did they really think they'd make it if they tried?

My Savers was in jeopardy too.  I sure hope they don't have to close!

Really?  What were you thinking people???

Derek and Emily had a bit of water on their road too...

But you know what?  I'm not crabby about that money I spent to have those magical people come and dig my yard up anymore.  My basement is bone dry, and I will sleep well tonight knowing that it will stay dry!  Someone was looking out for me and let that basement project take place less than one week before we got nearly 10 inches of rain.  I am counting my blessings, thanking my lucky stars, and saying a little prayer for everyone else here that doesn't have a dry basement!

I've never seen anything like this, and probably won't again in my lifetime.  I am thankful that it wasn't worse, and nobody has been severely injured.  To those of you that live here, please stay safe, and don't drive through the puddles!  Hoping all of your cleanups aren't too painful!

And we all lived happily ever after in our basement. 

The end.

XOXOX

NH