Tough stuff

Sorry. Long post. Feel free to skip.

Cindi had a great suggestion to go out on a picnic yesterday. So, I told the kids to get ready so we could go soon. And it started to rain. And then pour. And then the power went out, turning off my Gilmore Girls. The nerve. I kept thinking the power would come back on, but that didn't happen. For 3 hours. I suppose that was a good thing because it forced me to do unpleasant things like sewing *shudder*. I had to repair Sugar's pillow and chair that were ripping at the seams. And I got out the boys' summer clothes from storage. 'Bout time. It is almost May!

We finally got power back in time for me to make dinner. Since it was already 5 and my kids were, and I quote, "starving!" we did a quick pancakes with eggs and sausage because waiting an hour for the casserole on the menu wasn't an option. The lights kept flickering so I just hoped I could get done cooking before we lost power again. Thankfully it didn't got out again, but it didn't stop raining either.

After spending ages getting 3 kids ready for bed, I went out the the porch off my bedroom to enjoy the amazing feel of a Spring rain. It was so beautiful, and peaceful and lovely. It was romantic and serene. That is until I noticed that I had a lake in my backyard. Argh. It was already up to the patio and about 2 ft into the bricks. We installed a sump pump in the backyard just to avoid this little problem. A sump pump that hadn't been turned on since the thaw. Oops. I grabbed my flashlight and headed out in the rain to turn it on. I flipped the switch and nothing happened. Not good. I sloshed out into the lake and tried to uncover the grate only to find that it was already uncovered. No leaves or mud or anything on it. I finally caved and called Brad. He talked me through checking the fuse and finding a cool tool that can see if the wires have power going through them. Everything appeared to be fine mechanically, so he suggested lifting the grate and sticking my hand in to make sure nothing was blocking it. Uhhhh.... Did I mention it was still raining out and that there were spiders under the deck where the power switch is? After dealing with all that, I'm now supposed to stick my arm into the murky abyss and hope it comes back out whole. I stood there for at least two minutes telling myself to hurry up and do it. "Stick you hand in, Melisa. Come on, do it. Hurry it up already. The longer you take the higher the water is going to rise. Do you really want water in the house?" And thus my internal conversation continued for those 2 minutes until I sucked in my breath and plunged in my hand. I gasped when I actually touched something in the hole, a plastic bag. Yeah! I found the blockage and it wasn't scary or disgusting! I replaced the cover, but nothing happened. No circling water, no draining, nothing. Dang.

Brad and I talked over more options and it was decided that I would go to my neighbors and ask to borrow her hot tub pump. We'd used it in the past before we installed our sump pump in the yard. Thankfully, she was up and watching TV that late at night. I'm sure I looked like a soaked dog walking over there. Then I started getting everything ready. I connected the extension cords and covered the connection with a plastic bag and taped it all so it wouldn't get wet. I grabbed a plastic lawnmower toy to keep the connection off the ground. I went to the shed and tried to open the door, but wouldn't you know, my hand was slippery and couldn't manage to turn the knob hard enough. Ergh. I finally got the door open and then had to get the tangled hose off the wheel while holding a flashlight. Eventually I got the hose and I went back to assemble everything. But the water had receded. Seriously. It was entirely off the patio. The lake was shrinking rapidly. I could see water circling into the grate. Ahhhh, such a beautiful site.

I stayed out there, wanting to see the pump turn on to give myself peace of mind. I waited. And I waited. I repositioned my clematis on the fence. I got my pants scared off when I noticed a pair of green eyes staring at me from the "woods". Cats are evil, by the way. But the pump never came on while I was there. Eventually, when the lake was almost entirely gone, I figured the pump just wasn't going to turn on for me and I had a billion more things to do inside and it was almost midnight by now.

I went back inside to work on some stuff for church. And my printer wouldn't connect to the network. Ack. I gave up at 1 and decided to go to bed. For some reason, I've been tired and crabby today. Hmm, lack of sleep? Stress? Nah, couldn't be that. But I decided to go ahead and refer to myself as Super Mom today for getting the sump pump to work, in spite of spiders, rain, and cats. I woke up to the beautiful sight of a lake-free backyard and a lake-filled retention ditch. So pretty.

Take that! Who needs a man anyway? I DO! I DO!! I DO!!! Well, not any man, a specific man, namely Brad Mons. Sure miss him...