random thoughts – Day 1,196 – (Monday) – waterlogged

The weather mood swings continue. Holy crap. Today there was rain, humidity, heavier rain, thunder, and more heavy rain, resulting in the second afternoon flash flood at my end of the street in the past couple weeks. Now I wonder how many have happened when I wasn't home to see it.

I was busy working in the remote office, aware that the thunder and rain were happening outside because I could hear them, but blissfully unaware of the extent of things because I hadn’t looked out the window.  When I heard voices in the shared driveway and finally looked outside, it was quite a sight. 

Water!

The rain continued to fall and the guy from next door was shirtless and barefoot, wading in water over his ankles in the shared driveway. Others from the same house had moved their cars from the driveway to less flooded spots further up the street.

Water filled my side of the driveway. It lapped at the bottom step of the little deck to the back door and pooled at the end of the street and along the street in front of my house. As I stood on the landing exclaiming "holy crap!", truck guy yelled out the window that in 2006 the water was as high was the landing where I stood. 

The full length of the other parking spot at the other side of the yard was covered with water.  The front flower bed along the street and mulched on Sunday, was several inches underwater.

A neighbor called to tell me she had called the city about the flooding and that we were “third on the list.” That’s when it finally dawned on me that I should probably check the basement. 

Water could be heard trickling. Several fountains sprung from gaps between the concrete blocks and at the seam where the wall meets the floor. The corner where the sump pump sits was as dry as the desert, but two other corners and the wall along the flooded driveway edge were taking in and pooling water. It looked a bit like the start  of a low-budget water park/splash pad. And not in a fun way. For a few minutes, water was pushed with a broom from the deep end of the park to the dry end and the pump sent it out.

Within a half hour and before the city truck arrived to check out the situation, the storm drain caught up to the volume and the water had receded from one driveway and the end of the street. A few minutes later, the street looked like nothing had ever happened. The basement still needs some more time spent on water relocation. Pushing water with a broom is turning out to be quite an upper body workout.

As for the lawn, which becomes more overgrown each day thanks to the rain. It has needed mowing for a solid week, and hasn't been done because either it was raining, was wet from earlier rain, I had plans, or all of the above. It's going to be a heck of a chore when I can finally tackle it.