So I’m trying to decide if it is a form of denial or merely attempting to have a good attitude, that when my daughter calls to tell me that the basement is flooding one of my first thoughts is, “Well, at least it wasn’t raw sewage this time!” Am I becoming jaded here? (No, no, we’ll just call me seasoned and experienced, better understanding how much worse it COULD be. Ha!) No matter what you call it, this is getting more than a little ridiculous (yeah, I probably passed “ridiculous” a long time ago). And while it was triggering in many ways yesterday, feeling like once again my ability to provide my children with a safe and stable home was being threatened, now I can’t help but just laugh. Because, I mean, REALLY!
Last night we had what was our EIGHTH flood since Kenny died. 7/8 of those, including this one, have been down in my basement where my clinic is, so extra disruptive to our family’s life and livelihood. I should also note that four of those floods, from three different sources, happened within the last six weeks. Because of course it wouldn’t merely be the same issue I was dealing with, and could hopefully ultimately fix. Oh no, nothing so simple as that for the Sawyers! There have been two floods involving sewage related to my main sewer line (you remember how bad those were!), two that involved water from outside coming in through my storage room and in to my clinic, one with our fridge, two with a broken washing machine, and now this one where the source STILL remains a mystery (have had several professionals come and we still haven’t been able to replicate or diagnose the problem). All I know is that it was a LOT of water that was in my furnace room, laundry room, and client observation room, down to my clinic.
To put this in perspective, the number of times in nearly 20 years of marriage (prior to Kenny’s death) that we had to deal with flooding in our basement was ZERO. Number of floods from a fridge or washing machine? You guessed it – ZERO! There never was a “we” that had to deal with any of those things, only the “me.” Talk about lucky!
So the good news is, I do now own my own shop vac and will (hopefully!) not need to keep borrowing from kind neighbors or family members. (Or better yet, hopefully will NEVER need again!) I’m also becoming a bit of an expert at how to dry out carpets and carpet pads, although considering how many times I have had to use them in the past year, I probably should just purchase my own industrial fans to have on site.
Really, though, it could have been so much worse, if the flooding had happened when we were out of town and wasn’t discovered for more than a week. Or if it had happened when I was in the middle of a therapy session. Or or or…so many ways. And at least we have heat again (last night was COLD!), since our furnace automatically shut off when the sensor detected water last night, and I didn’t want to turn it back on until someone had come to figure out what was wrong. Oh, and funny thing about that sensor, actually. It was just installed a few weeks ago, and since the water stopped coming in after everything had shut off, without it the damage would likely have been a lot worse and we might not have even discovered the flood until the next day. So thankful for the prompting I had to have that installed when I did.
In the meantime, now we wait, a bit on edge wondering if the flooding will happen again, and when. There are currently multiple alarms placed around my furnace in my laundry room to alert me if there is any more water, at which point I will call the professionals to come back out (although the weekend may complicate this). They may go off, or they may not. No way to predict. I don’t know if I hope they WILL go off so we can hopefully find the problem, or if I hope they don’t so I don’t have to deal with more water. So pardon me if I speak too loudly the next time we meet from temporary hearing loss from these deafening fans that are running nonstop. I’m going to go outside now and see what is happening with the sprinkler leak that was discovered today as well, and is not at all related to what happened inside – so make that eight floods INSIDE, but there have been more than a few outside as well the past year. Hoo boy!
UPDATE (less than an hour later here): GAAAAAH!!! I just walked upstairs and my kitchen floor was covered in water, looking like it was coming from my (fairly new) dishwasher. WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!?!? (If anyone needs me, I am now going to eat chocolate cake for dinner, go to my previously scheduled hair appointment, and then stop adulting for the rest of the evening.)
