Water, Water Everywhere... Well...
So, my basement flooded this morning... Whew!
I am right now as I am typing this, moving a carpet cleaner an inch at a time (and a sentence at a time) to soak up the floor in my room. It's a blast, come join me. I woke up this morning only to find when I took a step down (in my brand new socks that I just put on) 2 inches of water. It has made my entire morning, being two hours late for work so I could soak up and squiggie all the water on the hardwood floor into the sump-pump, while the wee little ones and my mother were sleeping away, nicely tucked into never-never-wake-up-when-I-call-for-your-assistance-land. At least all my boxes with clothes in them were high and dry this morning. I guess that's a plus.
Anyway, I suppose with all the rain/some snow we have been having here for the past few months have totally saturated the water table. The water seems to just be seeping in through the cracks in the unfinished part of the workshop. The little gizmo, called the sump-pump (for all you who do not know what this is, it pumps the ground water back up to the surface... I know, only to seep back down again and be pumped up once again... kind of recycled, but it keeps the water out of the basement...), is quite outdated and as old as our house is (which is like 19 years old... wow, has it been that long, really?) and cannot handle the amount of water in the ground. Which got me thinking about silly things like geology, hydrology, and even anthropology. It's funny, but places like where my friend Josh lives (in New Mexico) they can't even wash their cars legally because the water table is so damn low. It's a desert out there. I remember when Chris and I went out west a few years back and we kept seeing signs for "Lake Such-an-such" and we would keep an eye out for the lakes. But we never did see any tourist attraction lake, but a small little crusty pond, which was nothing more than a water-hole for the local farmer's animals. Seriously folks, these so-called lakes were not even as big as my house. It is stuff like that and like the Rio Grande, which incidentally is not so big (yes long, but nothing spectacular... it is much more the size of the Little Miami or smaller and shallower at most times of the year). Isn't it grand folks to live in an area where water is so abundant? I think it is. Though I don't make it a point to wash my car, I like the fact that I have the choice is I so desire. It is almost crazy to think of it being any other way.
It has made me think of the future. They say (who is this notorious they? I'd like to kick their asses) that eventually, if we keep up this pace of destruction, pollution, and everything all else, we will probably run out of fresh water. It will be those dryer places (and most interesting enough, the places on the coastlines) which will be the first to deal with this problem (Hell, they already are). And you know what? (Here is where the anthropological stuff kinda sets in) It would (perhaps will) be funny to see all those folks make a mad dash to the land of plenty (of water that is). Namely, close to where I live. Then let's watch the humans soak up every living resource available in such a small locality. Can't live anywhere else, so watch them squirm and die. I am not in any way being an advocate for the environmental lobby. I do have my t-shirt that says No to Clean Water and Air. Nah, I am as excited to witness this human failure in my lifetime as much as others may be excited to see it prevail over the wilderness (with technology of course). So my friends, say yes to our technocratic western culture, where the diversity is only in the skin color, and wave our hands to it goodbye. In the meantime while I/we wait, I'll be happy to waste some of this precious commodity I have found in my carpet and send it spoiled down the drain (where I guess it really isn't wasted...)
Peace out peoples,
-sib-
I am right now as I am typing this, moving a carpet cleaner an inch at a time (and a sentence at a time) to soak up the floor in my room. It's a blast, come join me. I woke up this morning only to find when I took a step down (in my brand new socks that I just put on) 2 inches of water. It has made my entire morning, being two hours late for work so I could soak up and squiggie all the water on the hardwood floor into the sump-pump, while the wee little ones and my mother were sleeping away, nicely tucked into never-never-wake-up-when-I-call-for-your-assistance-land. At least all my boxes with clothes in them were high and dry this morning. I guess that's a plus.
Anyway, I suppose with all the rain/some snow we have been having here for the past few months have totally saturated the water table. The water seems to just be seeping in through the cracks in the unfinished part of the workshop. The little gizmo, called the sump-pump (for all you who do not know what this is, it pumps the ground water back up to the surface... I know, only to seep back down again and be pumped up once again... kind of recycled, but it keeps the water out of the basement...), is quite outdated and as old as our house is (which is like 19 years old... wow, has it been that long, really?) and cannot handle the amount of water in the ground. Which got me thinking about silly things like geology, hydrology, and even anthropology. It's funny, but places like where my friend Josh lives (in New Mexico) they can't even wash their cars legally because the water table is so damn low. It's a desert out there. I remember when Chris and I went out west a few years back and we kept seeing signs for "Lake Such-an-such" and we would keep an eye out for the lakes. But we never did see any tourist attraction lake, but a small little crusty pond, which was nothing more than a water-hole for the local farmer's animals. Seriously folks, these so-called lakes were not even as big as my house. It is stuff like that and like the Rio Grande, which incidentally is not so big (yes long, but nothing spectacular... it is much more the size of the Little Miami or smaller and shallower at most times of the year). Isn't it grand folks to live in an area where water is so abundant? I think it is. Though I don't make it a point to wash my car, I like the fact that I have the choice is I so desire. It is almost crazy to think of it being any other way.
It has made me think of the future. They say (who is this notorious they? I'd like to kick their asses) that eventually, if we keep up this pace of destruction, pollution, and everything all else, we will probably run out of fresh water. It will be those dryer places (and most interesting enough, the places on the coastlines) which will be the first to deal with this problem (Hell, they already are). And you know what? (Here is where the anthropological stuff kinda sets in) It would (perhaps will) be funny to see all those folks make a mad dash to the land of plenty (of water that is). Namely, close to where I live. Then let's watch the humans soak up every living resource available in such a small locality. Can't live anywhere else, so watch them squirm and die. I am not in any way being an advocate for the environmental lobby. I do have my t-shirt that says No to Clean Water and Air. Nah, I am as excited to witness this human failure in my lifetime as much as others may be excited to see it prevail over the wilderness (with technology of course). So my friends, say yes to our technocratic western culture, where the diversity is only in the skin color, and wave our hands to it goodbye. In the meantime while I/we wait, I'll be happy to waste some of this precious commodity I have found in my carpet and send it spoiled down the drain (where I guess it really isn't wasted...)
Peace out peoples,
-sib-
the Omnipotent... Everybody loves SuperInsignificantBoy wrote this at 12:58 PM
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We get floods every year, 'cept it rarely affects our house as we're raised up off the road.
You have my sympathy -grin-
raised off the road???
Does that mean you have no basement?
Or does it mean that your house is on a hill?
Ours is on a flat sort of plain, which I guess, is sort of on the top of a ridge of a creek valley (which out west would be aptly named a river and not a creek)...
No basement and on a hill! Over here its really, really unusual to have a basement. But its also raised up much higher than all the other houses around; mostly they are at street level. To get to us you have to walk through part of the garden and there are loads of steps. An ornamental garden, perhaps, leading up to the house and then land all around it. (That sort of thing is really popular here; a lot of people really love gardening.)
Isn't gardening the national pastime of Britain? I thought it was...
Yeah, it probably is!
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