Wednesday, January 7, 2009

So, what happens when 80 inches of snow meets an ambient temperature of, say, 40 degrees?

It melts! Quickly! It comes off the roof in torrents and, to make things extra fun, it floods your basement because it is melting so quickly there is no place for it to go. So, here I sit at 1:00 a.m. in a furious battle to stem the flow of water from spread across my basement floor. Valiant has finally been sent to bed under duress. He waged battle outside with Superman for two hours, but he's got to get to bed. Superman is asleep on the couch behind me, hoping that I'll report that the flow has diminished. Every towel in our home has been used and is in the rotation from floor to mop up water to washer to spin out excess to dryer to get a little bit dry and back to floor again. It is never ending...grrrr.... and I am just waiting for towels to dry so we can do yet another switch. This is what grown-ups do for fun...I remember when being up at 1:00 a.m. meant I was out dancing, or going for a bit to eat after a movie, or taking a drive along the coast.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Erin,

I feel for you honey. Wish I could help more than sit an entire continent away worrying about you. Hang in there. It did stop raining (literally) here, but then the figuratively rain started.

It's supposed to be warm, sunny and dry here tomorrow and I have decided I am working on my tan if it is.

If you have any really old blankets, I find they help too, but you have to have two people to ring them out.

Be thankful you have a basement though. Imagine if your main house was the ground floor like the ones here, built on slabs of concrete.

So you are in my prayers. It's all I got, but at least it's my best. :)

Anonymous said...

Well, this is our fourth winter and definitely the worse yet. It truly hasn't been that bad. What has been so difficult is the sheer amount of physical labor. We will be better prepared in the future for the "worst case" scenario. Items on my list for next year are: a snow blower, extra shovels, ice dam heater, ice melt, and a generator.

Erin said...

Dear Anonymous, While the list is short, the items are "spendy"...I think you'll need to prioritize! Sincerely, CFO Nagle5