My own private bog

It's my own fault, really.

Back on Tuesday we had major storms and rain (I even got to go home early due to a power outage). Wednesday we had even nastier storms and rain. That morning I stood at the kitchen window, thought "man, it's really blowing out there" and watched one of my trees lose a six foot long limb that twirled like a baton halfway across the backyard. During that storm, one of my trees also cracked and fell, most landing against the crook of another, the top breaking off to land somewhere else. This tree caught all my attention, so I didn't think to really look for water in the basement. I gave it the cursory eyeball, but it looked dry.

Sigh.

It got in though. I know this because today I went into the back half of the basement during the weekly cleaning circuit and discovered soaked, ruined carpeting, boxes turned half to pulp, and floors drying on their own. This was all in the very back corner, around the wall and behind the kitchenette, so you have to really shlep over and look.

Sigh. I spent the last 3 hours cleaning and hauling, drying and repacking... ugh. Thankfully most of those boxes on the ground had textiles in them, so I've got some nasty blankets and sweaters in the washer now. Small favors, I suppose. If anyone wants a really cute "deco" inspired runner from Meijers, it's a little worse for wear but you're more than welcome to it. As an added bonus, it can evidently support life, so really, I guess I got a bargain on it.

All this was after I spent the noon hour sweating into my air conditioning unit as I tried to fish in plastic cable ties to strap the power cabling back to the top grille, out of the way of the fans. Shutting the power down, taking the grille off, doing the fix, and then putting the grille back on would have taken longer. Instead I put my education to use, flashing back on an old segment of Sesame Street where some kids lose a... jack(?) down a grate, so they use string and bubble gum to fish it out. I used the buckle of one zip-tie to fish out the end of another. (They say TV is bad for children... but I'm also fully equipped to deal with finding green monsters in my trash cans.)

Still, it's a wonder I didn't electrocute myself.

Worst part, I still have to finish the weekly cleaning circuit, too.

I would like to think the life lesson would be "Never buy a house. Go Condo" but I also went ahead and cleaned up the yard waste the neighbor's gardner left on my driveway. There are still neighbors...

What's the compromise? Trailer home in the woods? Space station? Hiring staff to take care of such petty problems? (Yeah, we'll go with that one)