Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I Thought That's What I Saw

It was yesterday as I was leaving for work. Heading out the back door, I looked down the basement stairs and I will swear I saw the tell-tale signs of water. Now this did not surprise me. We have had a major, major melting event over the past week. The snow has retreated about a foot. I have had seepage problems for almost 15 years. It comes in where the floor meets the foundation or seeps up through faint cracks in the concrete floor. Almost 20 years ago, we spent some time caulking the gap between the floor and the wall and that kept the water out in those areas where that was done. But time has caused that caulking to shrink and crack so the water seeps in. If I could move stuff around in the basement, I could seal the floor. There are products which do that, but the major problem is moving things around. There's not a lot of room to move things.

I wasn't that surprised to see water, but it is disheartening. I have piles of laundry on the floor to do and water on the floor means I have to spend my time doing laundry instead of a load a day. The other problem is that I need the line rodded, but one can't find the exterior access cap because it's buried under 18 inches of snow. Plus, I'm waiting for my tax return money so I can pay for it. I can't do a giant load of water soaked clothing as the tree roots in the line back up water into the basement. Dealing with that is more of a problem than the seepage.

I thought about it all day yesterday. How was I going to handle this. I resolved just to do a load of wash as I can. If I do a load when I get home, wait for the water to go down, I can do a second load later in the evening. It will get done and it will be okay.

When I got home, I went to the basement and there was no water, none, zero, zip, zilch. There wasn't even evidence that water had been in the basement. I did a load of pants and moved a couple of piles off the floor. Okay, what did I see? Was my brain so expecting to see water that it put water where there was none? We got rain overnight last night. I did not look this morning. I am prepared for water. If it happens, it happens.

We are to get light rain today and near 60 degrees tomorrow. I should continue to shovel the front sidewalk, which I have not. It's still moving a foot of snow off the walk and I really am tired of shoveling. The potential for water seepage is great. My brain should tell me what is there and not what could be there. I really don't need to worry about things I don't have to.

Beverage:  Scottish Blend tea

Deb

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