Flooded!

Being the lowpoint of the neighborhood definitely has its disadvantages. In the four years I've lived in this house I've had a few pooled water incidents, but nothing like the flood of 2007. And now...after what we just finished going through there is a Tualatin Valley Water District guy outside inspecting what we believe is a broken mainline pipe under the street...a broken 6 INCH mainline pipe under the culdesaq. Water is bubbling up through the concrete...a river of water flowing into the storm drain...and he tells us to just wait until they can get a crew out there...oh yeah...and by the way..if it starts to bubble up in your yard or if you lose water pressure call us and we'll come running quicker.

Uhm...why are we waiting for the disaster before we fix the potential disaster?

Two weeks ago I spent 24 hours on flood watch with John - we filled 12 sandbags and stopped up our garage and built a riverbed for the water to flow past our house and out into the greenspace behind it.

It was amazing. The culdesaq was under at least 18 inches of water. It made a lake out of our yard and front stoop...if I'd been 12 again I would have been out playing in it. Now that I'm much more grown up and responsible (Ahem...yes I am ... no you're not...YES I AM!) I can see why my parents never joined us in frolicking around in the water when we were kids.

Of course, dare I complain with so many places in the world going without water at all? I'd be happy to share...I'm sure the whole Oregon Coast would have been happy to share...that flood of 2007 was a real disaster for some areas. I suppose we got off easy with a wet crawlspace, a $90 sump pump purchase and achy backs from digging. OK...it was really only Mr. Chucklehead's back that was achy...I offered, but he demanded on being the manly man.

So here I sit now checking off my checklist...shower...CHECK...(a girls got priorities when there is a possiblity of no water for 24 hours as they rip up the culdesaq to locate the pipe break...waterproof boots...CHECK, filled up all my water jugs...CHECK...and put them in the fridge...CHECK...and I would just like to say that its days like this that I love my mother for teaching me the value of a years worth of food supply. I don't have nearly a year's worth (getting ready for the move and all), but we'll definitely survive for the 24 hours.

The moral of my story? Don't buy the house in the low point of your neighborhood and just a little preparation can really bring peace of mind and next time I'm going to go out and play in it. If the water guy doesn't care...maybe I need to learn the glass is half full side of a flood?