My wet basement irony…

Woke this morning at 2am as the power went out due to a horrific thunderstorm. I haven’t seen it rain this hard for many, many years.

Since the power was out and I didn’t want to open the fridge on the main level to grab a soda, I headed downstairs to get one. Peeked at the sump pump to see if it was overflowing, but all was well so I proceeded upstairs to continue reading the Sunday paper. About an hour later I went back down to get another soda and stepped in half an inch of water!

I immediately proceeded to get the kids to help (my bride is out of the country) and we have been scrambling to get the basement taken care of for six hours so far (and we’re roughly halfway done). What a drag for them on the last big weekend before school starts. Also, we were a heartbeat away last summer on finishing our basement…thank God we didn’t do it as the expense (and mess) would’ve been incredible. We can now make investments to ensure this never happens again (new drain tile, battery backup on sump pump, etc.).

Here’s the thing: how in the world can we complain with what’s been going on in New Orleans? I’ll have to throw away a lot of stuff, but by nightfall our cleanup (for the most part) should be complete. People have lost everything down there and I’m losing some old carpet remnants, wrapping paper, some stuffed toys from when the kids were little, and one entire day. Big deal.

So while I’ve been cleaning and feeling pretty sore and tired, my thoughts have almost constantly been on those in New Orleans and the life disruption they’ve been dealing with for a week. Pretty ironic this happened right now, heh?