Present and Accounted For

If any of you are wondering, I'm still here.

We had quite a week last week. On Wednesday, I took the van in to the the trailer hitch wiring done as planned. That went off without a hitch, so to speak. But things went down hill from there.

It had rained heavily the night before, but neither Shane or I thought to check our basement until around 3:00 that afternoon. There was no water in the basement. Anymore. But there had been a lot water there. The water mark in one spot was 8" above the floor. We had gone through this last year and stored most of our things up off the floor and/or in Rubbermaid totes. We found out, unfortunately, that unless those totes are full and heavy, they just topple over in 8" of water. When they topple over, the lids usually come off, too. What a mess!

We spent ALL DAY Thursday cleaning up the mess. We threw out what we had to, salvaged what we could, and scrubbed the floor with bleach water. Our councilman said to put everything at the curb, because he feels it's the city's responsibility to (at least) get rid of our garbage for us, since it's their responsibility to have a drainage system in place that actually works. All around our neighborhood there are trash heaps at the curb.

The water also flooded out our water heater, and it was Friday morning before a service tech could come out to get it lighted for us. Believe me, we tried to light it ourselves, but couldn't. The tech said it still had quite a bit of water in it.

To hell with the piles of dirty laundry and dirty dishes, we were more than ready to get out of town by Friday afternoon, so we went camping in the "nused" (new/used) tent camper. We had a great time. It was a nice weekend with pleasant weather, and we enjoyed a much needed break.

Only to come home Sunday afternoon to more rain, thunderstorms and a brief power outage. We'd have been better off staying at the campground were the camper was dry and air conditioned. So far, so good, though. Although light rain continues to fall, we've had no flooding in the basement this time around.

Needless to say, I haven't had time to put up a menu. Or update the first-of-the-month debt reduction numbers. Or post camping pictures, or the food pictures from last week's produce haul. Or catch up my laundry or dishes.

But I am here, and I'm well.

I'll get to all of it soon.