Basement Flooding & Other Complaints
Last night I went to see INXS in London, Ontario, Canada. It was my sister's idea and I agreed to go. I wasn't too high on it since I already saw them once when they came to Michigan. The new singer is a tool and it feels like I'm watching a cover band now. Anywho, my sister winds up getting a raging case of stomach flu but she had spent quite a bit on the tickets already so she decides (in between vomiting and other atrocities) that she's going to tough it out. I don't blame her, but, believe it or not, going to a concert that's 3 hours away with someone who's literally dying, is not fun. We had to stop several times so she could "evacuate." It was pouring rain and Canada isn't really big on putting lights on their highway so my eyes were killing me. 
We go to the concert and my sister can't get up to leave. She's burning up and dizzy. I wind up picking her up and carrying her out-- in 3 inch stilettoes and up steps. Thank God, once we got outside and she got some air, she could walk to the car. She was out like a light, leaving me to drive home, by myself, in another country, in the rain. All right, now I'm really whining because it wasn't that bad, that was just annoying. What really sucked is that every !@#$ gas station from London to the US Border closed at 10:00? Um, what? We were down to 2 miles left on the fuel range when I found a Burger King where someone recommended an open gas station 15 kilometers away. So I have 2 miles left, but 15K to go. You don't have to be a math major to know that that isn't going to fly. With a lot of coasting and switching into neutral, I actually made it. Crisis averted. As soon as I hit the US border, I called James to let him know I'm on my way. He answers with-- and you know this question never means something good: "Hey, do you know of any 24 hour hardware stores within 50 miles of our house?" Our sump pump fried and, of course, it's pouring and it's filling up as fast as he can pump the water out. The only one I could think of turned out to not be 24 hour anymore. I get home after dropping my sister off at about 3 a.m. and the rain has almost stopped. James had just finished pumping the sump out and he felt confident that it would be okay for 2 more hours until he got up to go to Home Depot when it opened. Boy, was he wrong. Our entire basement had about 2 inches of water in it when he went down at 5 a.m. He pumped most of it out, went and got the sump pump, installed it and we've been cleaning the basement since about 7 this morning. Then about 2 hours ago, James got a page and had to go in to work. He's the administrator of all the servers for a huge part of the university and, naturally, of all days, they had a disaster that required his immediate attention. I'm not thrilled about doing the job solo but he's worked really hard already and it looks like he's going to be at work really late too so, in a weird way, I got the better end of the deal. This is the first break I've taken and I'm about to run to the store to buy some plastic totes to replace the cardboard boxes that were destroyed. Thank goodness we already kept most of our stuff up at least 3 inches off the floor so we didn't lose too much. The worst part is picking everything up to get the water from underneath it so it doesn't get moldy. It would figure that each of the cardboard boxes had about 100 pounds of glassware in them so I had to remove each piece, rewrap in new newspaper and set to the side until I have something to put it in. All right, just had to vent. Right now I hate basements, sump pumps, raining, flooding and not sleeping. I'll keep you all up to date on any new things that I'll end up hating by the end of the day.  |
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| wow... i remember those day....during one bad summer storm our side of the street basements got flooded, the other side of the street got flooded with sewer water..eww...poop etc...nasty!!!!! I feel for you...nothing is worse than having to clean out the basement....and the smell of damp, mildewy walls and misc stuff.....
STOP THE RAIN WILL YA! |
WOW!  And I thought we had a bad weekend! I'm so sorry! Just one question...what were you doing at a concert in 3 inch heels??? |
Bet you looked good though  |
Darcy wrote: Bet you looked good though Lol. Very true. It's been so long since I've worn comfortable shoes when I go out that I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I wasn't in pain. Quote: Just one question...what were you doing at a concert in 3 inch heels???
Also, 3 inch heels puts me about about 6'3 so it's always fun to block the view of others behind me.  |
| plus you could see the stage better...you amazon |
| What as wretched experience!!!!! Your sister OWES YOU BIG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not a big concert goer so I can't IMAGINE ANY BAND worth a 3 hour drive, much less under those conditions!!!!!
You POOR THING!!! |
| Okay....Ginny made me feel like Im not being sympathetic enough....so....
Im sorry Jill that you had such a pooper of a night and rainwater up to your wazoo in your basement....there! but please....DO A RAIN DANCE TO MAKE IT STOP! |
It's OK Darc, since I'm so good at WHINNING myself I'm also good at responding to it!! It's an art  |
Wow, that really sucks That happened at my house but we called an emergency service and they installed a new one  On a brighter note you didn't get a migraine! I'll bring you some sweet potatoes  |
ButtersStotch wrote: Right now I hate basements, sump pumps, raining, flooding and not sleeping.
Amen (From all of us in New England) |
| Wow... crappy night!
I've made the drive from here to Windsor and back many times and although I do remember that south of London the lighting sucks, and actually the lighting sucks pretty much the whole way except through the GTA (greater Toronto Area), but I don't remember having any problems with gas stations being closed? It's been 4 years though so maybe that's changed. Good to know for whenever I get down that way again. I never really liked INXS a whole lot to begin with, but I agree their new lead sucks. Hope your week gets better, and that your sister is feeling better.... though I wonder how many Canadians she gave her nasty flu to..... lol.... |
| I can sympathize with the flooded basement. We get floods in our at least once a year. Horrible to clean out. We finally learned to keep things off the floor, but it still smells so musty and damp. And it's still a chore to get all the water out. Ugh.
Hope everything is going better today, and that you can get some REST!! |
| Ugh. If there's anything at all that I hate it's flooded basements. As a kid, I used to live in the house at the bottom of the hill. Every spring when the snow melted, all the run off would end up in my window well and then it'd seep in through the walls and flood our entire basement! Inches and inches.
Of course after the first or second time, I'd probably learn to keep my room clean so that I wouldn't lose everything I owned (because everything I owned was inevitably on the floor at that time, being a preteen and all) but no. I never really caught on. Finally, when we were about to sell the house, my dad did some landscaping that helped keep our basement from flooding. Amazing that. But I always fear water destroying my most precious things. Good thing I live in Arizona now. I'm lucky if I see rain, let alone flooding. |
| Oh Dear what a disasterous night, glad you made it home |
| That sounds like a perfectly horrible ordeal. Like a stress marathon.
Did the doggies get to play in the basement wading pool? |
| The worst part is, it's a flood that should've never happened. Our sump pump has been running virtually nonstop for almost 3 years because of an escalating drainage problem that didn't become apparent as a big problem until a few months ago. We fixed the problem but the pump was, well, tired. It won't happen again!
Quote: I'm not a big concert goer so I can't IMAGINE ANY BAND worth a 3 hour drive, much less under those conditions!!!!!
Lol. I'll drive anywhere for anything mildy interesting. I normally don't extend that policy to Canada because I hate going there but this was for my sister. She's spent the last year working 7 days a week so now that she finally has some time off, I thought it would be good for her to get out. She's too young to sit home all the time! She's only 26 and she just sold the business that she started for almost 3 times what she bought into it for so, for now, she's declared herself retired. Notice James was not a part of that adventure. He hates live music and I have a hard enough time getting him to see bands 10 minutes away. |
Valerie wrote: That sounds like a perfectly horrible ordeal. Like a stress marathon.
Did the doggies get to play in the basement wading pool? No way! Didn't you know the doggie boogieman lives down there? None of the dogs will go down there, which worked out great in this situation. Bear made it down one step once and Clyde and Lucy barked at him until he came back up like, "No, no! Come back!" |
ButtersStotch wrote: Valerie wrote: That sounds like a perfectly horrible ordeal. Like a stress marathon. Did the doggies get to play in the basement wading pool? No way! Didn't you know the doggie boogieman lives down there? None of the dogs will go down there, which worked out great in this situation. Bear made it down one step once and Clyde and Lucy barked at him until he came back up like, "No, no! Come back!" LOL that is so funny! Bear is lucky to have such nice older sibs. I wish mine would stay out of the basement. Apparently, all sorts of fun to be had down there. . . |
| Poor Jill.
I am happy that I don't have a basement because of flooding. When my Parent's bought their second house I was 4 yrs old. Mom sent me down to the basement to get something for her. I saw water up to the third step. I came running back up and asked if I could put my bathing suit on. She freaked out and came running downstairs. At this point all the boxes Mom & Dad hasn't opened from the move a couple of weeks earlier were floating around the room. After this disaster they installed french drains & a sump pump. We had another problem many years later during a hurricane when the power was out. Sorry you had to deal with this especially after your long exhausting night |
| Oh Jil! What an awful ordeal!! Makes me glad I don't have a basement! |
| What an awful night. Your sister owes you BIG time!! We can't have basements here (water table is too high), but I've always wanted one for the extra space. You're making me glad I don't now. |
| Even though it really sucked, I was watching the news last night and some people had serious floods just from the rain. Ours was at least only a malfunction and, in comparison, very mild. On the plus side, the basement has never been cleaner and this mess has made us do some serious organizing, which is something we needed to do anyway. Everything will be so neat when we're done! |
| That Sucks. Sounds like you made the best of a bad situation. |
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