Tag: Flood

Holding it Together

The first half of the work day was nice and busy so I didn’t have time to freak out over the future or anything freak out worthy. The afternoon might be a little slower, so I could let my mind wander to things that scare the hell out of me.

On the upside, we’re going to try to do our Wednesday burgers and Marvel thing with Harry. Jen and I are planning on having burgers for dinner after I finish work, and we’re going to sneak in today’s episode of What If while we eat. It’s not set in stone yet, but Harry is going to try to join us via an group watch thing. He won’t be here with us, but he’ll be watching with us. I’m looking forward to that enough that I haven’t even let myself look up the topic of today’s episode. It is not set in stone yet, of course. He might not get back to his dorm in time. That is perfectly all right though.

The floor in the cellar is still wet, but when I last went down stairs to check there wasn’t a lot of standing water. I’ve gone there 2-3 times this morning and vacuumed up whatever I found. Also, the dehumidifier has been working it’s tail off. I know that at some point after I leave tonight the dehumidifier will be full enough to auto-shut off, and then there will be nothing to fight the flood until I come back tomorrow night.

It’s going to be a long second half of the work day. Then once I get to my parents’ house it’s going to be a long night taking care of things there. Then tomorrow… I don’t want to talk about the rest of the week because I am afraid of jinxing things. Shut up, fat boy.

Okay, back to work. The email is piling up and I have a couple of meetings to get to.

Rock on, constant readers*

*Constant readers! It just popped into my head! In a post a couple of days ago I was trying to remember the phrase Stephen King uses to address his readers in his afterwards. Constant readers! That’s it! Kick ass, Mr King!

Wednesday News

Oh, it’s Wednesday again. When we dropped off my step son at his dorm last week, Wednesdays were the days I was most worried about in terms of being sad because he’s not around. Wednesdays are the days that the new Marvel TV show episodes hit Disney+. New Episode days (they used to be Fridays, but Disney changed it for some reason) have been spent in the living room eating burgers and fries for dinner while watching the latest. That dates all the way back to WandaVision, which seems like ages ago, but was really only a few months back.

On the ride home from Vermont I said to my wife, I’m not looking forward to Wednesdays when he’s not around for Marvel and Burgers night. Sad face. It’s okay though. I can be sad for me and thrilled for him at the same time. He’s starting day three of his University Academic Career today. Put simply: He’s the man.

Tonight is a parent sitting night for me so I will be staying over there. I’m super nervous. There are things happening over there that will hopefully resolve all of the out standing issues but I am scared shitless to write about them out of fear of something going wrong and all of it falling apart. I’ll keep my mouth shut for a while longer. Hopefully only a few days.

I just vacuumed up Lake Asshole. The dehumidifier is running and I’ll empty it as soon as it fills. We have another hurricane remnant on the way tomorrow. I haven’t checked the forecast yet today but as of yesterday the potential for tons of rain was very high. I need Lake Asshole to be as dry as possible before I leave tonight.

I keep forgetting to take the trash barrels in off the street. Trash pickup was yesterday afternoon and the barrels are still out there. Remind me to take care of that, will ya?

The potential for freak outs over the course of the rest of the week are very high. Just be warned. If I start losing my shit in the middle of the night while I’m at my parents’ house and have no one to talk to about it, I’m going to unload here.

Okay. Time to punch in to work. I have a bunch of meetings on the schedule today. Here’s hoping that distracts me from all the other shit for a while at least.

Happy September. Summer is officially over and Winter has officially begun. San Diego is calling me and I am not sure I can resist her for much longer.

Stay at Home Day

Today is a simple pandemic shelter in place day. I am staying home and not going anywhere. The work day is 33 minutes away and I have a truck load of stuff to do today. After work I don’t go to my parents so I’ll make a big dinner for me and the love of my life and take the opportunity to get some stuff done at home.

One big focus will be evaluating the current lake asshole situation in the cellar. We are still getting enough rain that I can’t rule out the ground water level as the source of the mini floods, but at this point I am really leaning toward something inside leaking. Hopefully within the next week or so we can get someone out to take a look and see if they can find the root cause. Until then, wet vac plus dehumidifier equals a false sense of security.

I might try to get some musical therapy in tonight. Not sure. I actually had a 45-60 minute window last night where I could have done something/anything and I chose to watch an episode of Toast of London (I still have seven to go and it looks like today is the last day it’s on Netflix. I thought it was being removed today but I just refreshed my Netflix tab and it’s still there. Unless I’m just seeing the cache?) and play a video game. Star Wars: The Old Republic. On a scale of 1-10 I give it a four. Maybe a 3.5. I am playing a Jedi character and he doesn’t have a light saber yet. Maybe once I get that far in the story I’ll give it a higher rating. At my current point, still super early in the story, I do get to slaughter bad guys in an awfully un-Jedi like manner so… it’s okay. For music, I do know that I am currently slightly behind the pace I kept in the two years that I finished 50/90 as far as completed mixes goes, but I think I might be a smidge ahead overall. Who cares. I’m hoping to make a big push this weekend. We’ll see. Still lots of shite going on.

Want a blog stats update? Sure you do! Always remembering that if you have one of a thing and add another of that thing you can rightfully state that you have a huge, dramatic increase… know what I mean? When I talk of growing numbers, they are still very small numbers. Right? Right. I’ve mentioned in the past that my total page views per month stat took a huge jump at the start of the year. January blew away my previous monthly high, then May beat the record by a very tiny bit, then June shattered the record again. July didn’t beat it but it was so close that we can call it a virtual tie. How’d August do? Well, with 15+ hours to go… it shattered June’s record. I don’t know what I am doing to get people to visit, and I am pretty sure most of the page views are spam-related, but thanks for coming folks. I hope I am not boring you to death… I’m pretty sure I am boring everyone to death.

Okay, I am going to punch into work and get my day started. Happy Tuesday, everyone. Wear a mask, wash your hands, practice social distance, get the vaccine if you haven’t already. Be a decent human being and not a selfish, nazi shit.

Are We Ready?

Raise your hand if you’re ready for the hurricane that’s about to meteorologically bitch slap us.

<pause while people respond>

<pause while I tally the results>

As suspected, zero people are ready for this hurricane that is about to dump an ocean of ass all over us.

I cleaned up the latest incarnation of Pond Asshole in the cellar. Pretty much guaranteed that after that prick Henri takes a gigantic piss on New England it’s going to re-graduate to Lake Asshole.

At least I am home.

To do list for today:

  • Write this post
  • Put new strings on my sweet new Les Paul
  • Record tons of guitar tracks for 50/90
  • Laundry
  • Try to stay on top of Pond/Lake Asshole
  • Try not to let the hurricane ruin everything
  • Play some World of Warcraft with the love of my life
  • Try not to get too excited about Bellana coming home tomorrow.

Tropical Storm Remnant

It’s been raining all day. I went to the cellar an hour ago to check on the water status. Lake Asshole is confined to the storage area, which is where I think the water is coming in though I can’t tell exactly where, and it was not out in the cellar proper. It’s there, but the water level is low enough to downgrade Lake Asshole to Pond Asshole.

I emptied the dehumidifier (in the tub upstairs. I can do that with the little dehumidifier, but not with the huge-ish wetvac) and started vacuuming up some of the pond. I stopped when the wetvac reached full. I was in the middle of the work day so I let the dehumidifier run and figured I’d dump the wetvac outside during lunch.

That’s when the tropical storm remnant that drown the state of North Carolina hit for real. It is pouring like the end of the world out there. I’m positive the dehumidifier won’t be able to keep up, and I am going to get drenched when I empty the vacuum because irony is clearly dead.

The upside here is that I don’t go to my parents until tomorrow night, so I can keep up with this after work and all day tomorrow. I’m optimistic that it won’t get too bad. I’m also convinced that this whole water in the basement thing is just the universe kicking me when I’m down and trying to bring me to new “heights” of massive depression.

Fuck you, rain.

Saturday Morning

I slept in my own bed last night. Actually, I slept in A bed last night. My wife was with me. My step son was down the hall in his room, my cat was crawling all over us and purring like a purr machine.

We watched The Suicide Squad last night. It was awesome but too gory for Jen and she had to bail. Sorry sweetie. We then watched the episode of Parks and Rec where Letters to Cleo played the Unity Concert and Kay Hanley winked at whatshisname and Jen and Harry thought it was funny because me and Larry and Mike would have KILLED for a sliver of attention like that back in the 90’s. I bet Mike still has that water bottle that he took from the stage after a show at… The Paradise? Was it a solo show at The Lizard Lounge? I forget. I just remember that show at Merrimack College when she eviscerated the schmuck who was trying to slam dance (pick your spots, moron) and she stopped the show to tear him a new one and the three of us all simultaneously concluded that she is in fact the greatest front person in all of rock and roll past, present, and future.

Today I cleaned up the trash off the yard after the rodents knocked over the barrels again. Harry was nice enough to do it yesterday and all his hard work was ruined by a family of plague and rabbis infested squirrel pricks. Then I vacuumed up Lake Asshole in the cellar which has been forming for much longer than I ever let it form before, and it’s still smaller than it was regularly getting… so that’s good? I guess?

And while doing all of these chores I was just so friggin’ happy that I was doing them at my house for my family and not doing them at my parents house.

It is so good to be home.

The Never Ending Flood Story

There was a little bit of water on the cellar floor when I went to bed last night. We were in the midst of our first four consecutive rain-free days since April and it seemed like things might be on the mend down stairs.

Then it poured over night last night. Again. There was more water in the cellar this morning, though still not the worst it’s been. Clean up complete. Wet vac and dehumidifier emptied yet again, though unlike the last few times it is currently raining in Methuen, Massachusetts, though it’s just a drizzle.

Just add it to the growing list of things that are pissing me off these days.

I feel like a fucking yo-yo. I was optimistic three days ago, absolutely crushed two days ago, a little sort of bordering on optimistic yesterday, and just miserable again today.

Who would have imagined that I would look back over the recent past and see something other than 2020 as the low point of human existence. I am actually feeling a little nostalgic for the high point of the global pandemic that locked down the civilized world and killed millions of humans. Not really, but in a self centered way? Yeah, a little.

Fuck.

Fans

It’s not particularly hot out today, nor does it seem to be particularly humid. For some reason though, I am covered with sweat, head to toe. I feel like I just jumped into the shower.

It started when I took the laundry down cellar before work started. Over the last four weeks or so, “laundry” has been code for finding an excuse to go down cellar and check on the flood. I actually do laundry on these trips but it really is not the primary reason for going down stairs.

I vacuumed up Lake Asshole, dumped out the wet vac, and dumped out the dehumidifier. I also did a load of laundry. An hour later I went back down to flip the laundry to the dryer, but also vacuumed up the latest puddles. An hour after that I went down again to bring up the load of laundry and did the same vacuuming update. At lunch I carried a huge desk from Bellana’s room to the cellar, and then vacuumed up the much smaller puddles and emptied the dehumidifier again.

I am drenched with sweat. I have the wall mounted AC in the bedroom cranking, and a second fan on the floor blowing right on me and still I am drenched. The upside of all of this is the exercise.

Yesterday when I mowed the entire lawn (ouch), I closed the exercise ring in my AppleWatch Activity App. Bonus! By the time the day was done I had closed all three rings for the first time in ages. That was a good feeling. Even better, my SleepWatch app numbers from last night were out of this world. Everything except the total amount of sleep time (six hours and 50 minutes) was as good as it gets.

It made me think… is it time to start closing those rings again? Yesterday was the first of the month… could I get back on the wagon with a perfect month? I don’t know. It’s tough to close the exercise ring when I am at my parents, and even harder when I am at the office. It might be a challenge.

With all the lifting and going up and down the stairs over and over today, I’m already about half way to my 30 minute exercise ring today. The 10 minutes of walking I did before work didn’t hurt. heheh

We’ll see how it goes.

Stop Raining!

Last night when I got home from work I checked the cellar. There was a little water, but the amount was small enough that I was feeling optimistic. Then as we were getting ready to go to bed it started to pour like the world was ending.

This morning there was definitely more water down there then last night. I cleaned it up. I’ve checked on it a couple of times and things were looking okay. Then about five minutes ago it started to pour like the world was ending.

Are you fucking kidding me?

I give up. I can’t take this anymore. I’m just going to steal a row boat and row out to the middle of the harbor and live there from now on. If I am going to be swimming in my home I might as well do it in the ocean.

To hell with this bullshit.

Smoke Alarm

I went to sleep at 11:00. At 1:00 the smoke alarm in the hall outside of our room went off. It blared about three times and then it stopped. I spent 10 minutes wandering the house trying to see if there was anything going on and then it went off again. 3-4 beeps and then it stopped. I took it down, blew some air into it to try and dislodge any dust or whatever, and sat up until 2:00 to see if it would go off again. It didn’t. It’s 8:24 and it still hasn’t.

What’s up, smoke alarm? You just messing with us?

Litter box changed
Trash taken out to the street
Lake Asshole in the cellar vacuumed up
The dehumidifier in the cellar emptied
The wet vac that cleared up Lake Asshole emptied
The first of probably two loads of laundry started

30 minutes until I punch in to work. It’s a nana sitting night so I need to get all my shit together before the work day ends. I’m still super sweaty from the Lake Asshole experience. I should have taken a vacation day today. Then again, I kinda wish I could take a vacation day everyday but what can you do, right?