Rain, Rain Go Away

A Facebook friend's status yesterday was asking how Noah's family managed to make it 40 days with no break from the rain.

Good question.

I've had several people ask how we were faring so I thought I'd do a quick update here.

Nothing major to report and we are much better off than many people around us. But I am intrigued by God's sense of humor.

We were to start work on our basement (and my studio) today (the electrician was to be here at 9- he so far hasn't shown).

We've 1.) never lost electricity and 2.) never had water damage in our basement.

So the day before the electrician is to be here.... our power goes out. Thus leaving us with a non-functioning sump pump.

Usually this wouldn't be a problem. We live in a pretty dry area. In fact, the city normally pumps water towards our house.

Until last night. Apparently the recent 9+ inches of rain we've gotten had no place to go other than to become a lake in our backyard, our street, and the field. The city guys stood around looking a bit perplexed by the situation (that was just an observation, not a sarcastic joke. ahem.).

With water up to the windows and no electricity to run the sump pump, we scooped the sump pump out by hand and dumped bucket after bucket, after ever loving bucket, out of the basement. Thankfully the only water that got in was contained to the concrete (though if you know our basement, that's still a LOT of water by our standards). None of our drywall was damaged and, as far as I can tell, none of our 'stuff' was either. And the sawdust that had been sitting on the floor (for what I thought was too long... turns out not) was great for stopping the water from coming in any further.

All in all, we fared pretty well. Praying for no more rain and that the mess in Ames doesn't come our way. Praying for the people in Ames, Gilbert, and other areas that are in an absolute mess right now.

And thinking about all that 'stuff.' As we were trying to 'save' it last night, I asked Rusty what in that pile was important to him and worth doing all of that work for. His answer was nothing but that he didn't want to have to clean it all up later. Fair enough. I looked through the piles and realized the only things in the basement I would be the littlest upset about losing was the box of stuff from our wedding (which is up high on a shelf so I wasn't concerned about it).

But again. It's just 'stuff.' And I'm thankful for that reminder.