Rain, Rain, Go Away, Damn You

A wet update from my little quarter-acre:

First and foremost, I am not flooded. SO GRATEFUL. Many have flooded streets, flooded yards, flooded basements. Some have been evacuated. I cannot imagine that hell.

I had the good judgment to take the bus to work today. Otherwise, driving home would have been a nightmare, if not impossible, in my punchbuggy.

Upon boarding the bus shortly after 4:30, the only other passenger, a woman who gets off at the same stop as I do, informed me that we would be taking a slightly different route to our destination. The exit we usually take was closed due to flooding. I wasn’t surprised. Following all the rain a couple of weeks ago, we were able to take the exit, but close to the ramp was several feet of water. Today, a much, much greater area was under deeper water.

As the traffic slowed, we were struck by the depth of the water throughout the treed area off the highway. This was the case for several miles. Water, deep water, where we had never seen water before. Duh, I guess that’s what a flood is.

We passed our closed exit, craning to see the flooding at the bottom of the curving ramp, and took a subsequent exit. It wasn’t much better. Traffic was backed up for quite some distance. Eventually, we came to see that most of the exit was flooded out, as was the on-ramp running in the opposite direction. Both lanes on each side were closed, and vehicles has to use the breakdown lanes, not that they were free of water. Fortunately, the bus got through without problem. I was cringing, though, watching the cars plowing through. I don’t know that my car would have fared well. A Miata was stalled out in the water, and I was surprised that traffic was being allowed to pass through at all. Seriously, this exit should have been closed, too.

We made it to our stop with no problems. The parking lot is somewhat elevated, so I wasn’t concerned about my car. I saw no more flooding on the drive home, no more of that scary stuff I saw off the highway. I turned on the radio, and sure enough, the exit we had just taken was now closed. Did I mention how glad I am that I took the bus in today?

(I’m guessing the bus was so empty on the way home because others left work early to check on their basements. Also, I think some schools had early dismissals.)

With all the traffic and flooding and re-routing, it took more than twice as long to get home. Yeah, screw the gym today. The neighborhood looked okay, just big street puddles, no flooded yards. Deep sigh of relief. Even my front walk, which dips a little and sometimes floods, was good to go. (I’ve been meaning to do something about that walkway for a couple of years now. I just need to lift the stones, fill in with some topsoil, sand, gravel, and replace the stones — ledge rock, courtesy of Mom’s former home.)

On the car radio, I had heard some mention of not using water. At home, I turned on the television to get the scoop. Um, no dishwashers, no showers, no washing machines (sure, I had planned to do the laundry tonight that I didn’t do over the weekend), no unnecessary flushing of toilets (OF COURSE, I have my period). Possible sewage overflow problems. Great. Oh, hey, reverse 911 doesn’t mean much when you have just a cell phone. (Still, no regrets on that decision. Pay for another phone and get all the telemarketers? No, thanks.)

Then I noticed a puddle on the floor of the utility room. This was a frequent occurrence when I had P.J. She didn’t appreciate having to share the litterbox and would sometimes go NEXT to it. This puddle, however, was not yellow.

Drip, drip.

Oh, fuck.

Drip, drip, from the ceiling, above the shelves next to the washing machine. Clearly, hoping the section of the roof that I did not have reshingled last summer would hold out for another year was a joke. You see, the section I had done last summer following the pre-4th of July leak was the addition at the rear of the house. One layer of crumbling shingles, no liner paper or whatever that stuff is. Not the same as the rest of the roof, which, it turns out, has THREE layers of shingles. That be illegal. One or two layers of shingles is okay, but three layers is a no-no. Also, this means more money, as I will have to pay someone (Construction Ray?) extra for the additional time to have ALL THOSE SHINGLES removed and carted away. Ugh.

I checked the ceilings in the rest of the house. All looked well except for in one room, where a prominent crack, more prominent than I recall, running the length of the room, showed signs of dampness. The bathroom. MY NEW BATHROOM. With the new 48″ vanity and new slate floor that I just spent thousands on.

A nuisance, for sure, but nothing like the flooded homes I saw on the news.

I cleared the shelves in the utility room, wiped up the water, and set dishpans on the top shelf. Drip, drip. Not much else to do at this point but pray it doesn’t get any worse. I’ve checked the ceilings a million times and will probably check them a million more before leaving for work tomorrow.

On the bright side, the utility room may be the best room for a leak, if there has to be one. Not the kitchen, not the carpeted living/dining room, not the spare bedroom/personal landfill. I just hope, hope, hope it doesn’t leak anywhere else, and especially not in the bathroom, please. I don’t think I could handle any more bathroom dilemmas, really.

I don’t have a basement, so no worries there. True, if I had a basement instead of a crawl space I would have known about the leaky pipe that caused all the bathroom floor damage, but at least I don’t have to deal with pumping out a flooded basement.

Eventually, I got to feeding Sam his special vet food. He was so good, not getting under foot and constantly meowing, as he usually does from the minute I get home. He must have sensed I had more pressing business to tend to. He’s very intuitive like that. Yeah. Also, WATER. That he would have to walk through to get to the litterbox.

I got settled in (though I have yet to do any of the hours of homework I had intended to do) and noticed I had a voicemail. Mom, I assumed, but it was the sweet bluesleepy, being a good friend and good neighbor. Sorry I didn’t call you back, dear. I was busy neurotically checking my ceilings a million times.

I know that roof leaks can travel, meaning the leaking ceiling is not necessarily directly below the roof leak. For what it’s worth, the portion of the attic where I have Christmas stuff and other items stored is not over the utility room. I’ll check the attic on Saturday. Maybe Thursday. Nothing I can’t live without up there. I just hope my Barbies (and their house, camper, airplane) are okay. My collection of Hallmark ornaments (more than I’d care to admit to) are safely stored in the house, not in the attic with the other Christmas stuff.

Right now:

I’m not sure how long I’ll be restricted on water usage. If more than a few days, I will be washing out some socks and undies in the sink. My punishment for not doing laundry over the weekend like a good girl.

The highway is now closed along the area where we saw all the nearby deep water on the bus ride home.

Since getting home (around 6:00), the drippy ceiling in the utility room is wetter and the wet area is larger, but it seems to have stopped spreading in the last hour. The dripping stopped for a little while, but has resumed, albeit no worse than before. The bathroom ceiling looks no worse than when I got home (yay!). I want to think the worst is over. Except for having to pay for the new roof, that is.

Inconvenienced? Yes. But considering what others are dealing with, I feel quite fortunate.

=^..^=

Advertisement