Aggh! Our basement flooded again. We had the “huge amount of money, tear the carpet up, have people working in your home for a week, the stink of mildew, sewage coming out of the shower, new toilet, new drain, fight with the people fixing your home” disaster two years ago. We thought we had it fixed. And then, our tenant Sally, who lives in the basement apartment, called to say water was coming out of the drain.

For about an hour, I was hoping I could throw towels down, do a little mopping, and still get to jazzercise. Uh huh. John went to work. Sally worked from home to keep an eye on things. And I jumped into several roles I’m not very good at—finding home repair experts; navigating to far parts of the city; working strange equipment; and judging whether making a claim with my insurance company will solve the problem, ruin my rates, or even get me dropped.

working the phones against the clock

You know that scene in Jerry McGuire where Jerry has just been fired and he is furiously calling all his clients trying to keep them on board, and you see them just slip away? That was my morning.

Seattle is inundated with rain. Everyone else in the city needs a plumber and a shop vac, and as I wished I’d known, a dehumidifier. As I waited on hold with the plumber, I could feel water seeping onto the rug. As I debated whether to buy a shop vac, I knew the last one was being rented at the store down the street.

I called three plumbing services and five equipment rental places. The plumber couldn’t come until 5:00. The only place with a shop vac was forty-five minutes away.

the shop vac

The problem with driving to the other end of the city at 10:45 a.m. was not the flooded roads, or navigating to a place I’ve never been, or walking into a store that felt like male-only space, it’s that David fell asleep at 11:00. And he stayed asleep until we got home at 11:45. That was the nap for the day. This means, the boy who was already feeling disgruntled from being ignored all morning, was now in really bad shape from having his nap cut short by an hour.

friends and family to the rescue

Sally, with continuous good humor, chatted with David and Rose and did not complain about having to perch on her bed like a lifeboat.

My sister came over and did three hours of hard labor with the shop vac.

My sister’s friend Leslie came over and shopvacced my basement.

My brother-in-law picked Rose up from school, kept her at his house, borrowed his sister’s steamcleaner for us, and drove it over.

David wants attention

So, at 4:00 David and I finally got a few minutes to decompress. I tried to read my magazine in between reading stories to him. He picked it up and threw it across the room. And I thought, you’re right, kid. I’ve spent all day trying to slam a diaper on you while I talk to the insurance agent while I sign for the plumber; you deserve some undivided attention.

emergency prep 101 or forget about the canned peaches

I know where my passport is. I have 12 gallons of water in the garage. I have thought through what I would do if I had one hour to evacuate. But, do I own a shop vac? My take away lesson-- plan for the emergencies that happen regularly and worry about the volcano eruption next week.