H2 uh oh

It has rained steady for the last 24 hours. Heavy pouring rain at times. It was falling so hard at one point last night it sounded like a freight train was rolling across the roof.

The Rising ranch was built sometime in the 1940’s. I am guessing it started as a one floor dwelling and at some point they added another story. The upstairs is equipped with a dormer and the roof above that is, unfortunately flat. Every year during the winter it builds up an ice dam on the edge, ends up with standing water and leaks into what is now my office.

Since I am home all day now, mostly, the second story flood watch falls to me. Yesterday I had a bunch of errands to run. Change the oil on my car, attend a hearing for a man who called some of my ex-coworkers names and threatened them (guilty-justice swift and sure!) and meet someone for lunch.
I didn’t make it back home till late. Shortly after I got home so did the long suffering wife.

I heated up the supper and she walked into the kitchen, slipped and damn near ended up on her behind. What? Water on the floor. Her first thought of course is that I spilled some, but further investigation turned up the real Uh Oh. My office was flooded! Mops and buckets and towels and pots and pans. Some fun.

Later on I was in my easy chair half dozing in front of a dumb movie when I heard my wife shriek and then a tremendous crash. I levitated off the chair and flew up the stairs. The long suffering wife had tried to closely examine the ceiling by standing on my office chair-the one with wheels. Fill in the blanks. She is fine. My heart rate is nearly back to normal.

The basement of the Rising ranch is prone to flooding as well. Because of this and at some expense we had two giant holes dug at the low end and installed two sump pumps. Another time I will recount the story of what happened before the sump pumps.

About three am last night I woke up and listened to the sump pumps run. They are supposed to shut off when the water level in the hole drops. They were running continuously. I went down to investigate and found Niagara Falls in my basement. The water was coming in too fast for the pumps to keep up!

This really sucks. We have water coming in top and bottom.

The garage is flooded as well. I haven’t checked the studio yet. It’s on top of the garage and got a new roof last year so it should be ok.

Any old time the weather would like to give us a break that would be fine.