At some point, my son (who was somewhere in the house doing something) came to us and asked what the flashing outside was. We kinda dismissed him with a quick answer about lightning. Maybe heat lightning, maybe a storm. No biggie.

A few minutes later he comes back with a, “No really. What is this out there. Come look.”

So we go to the entry and look up out the big front window and the sky is just lighting up over and over. So we open the door and step out. The flashing is almost constant and very localized. It keeps happening in essentially the same part of the sky. At first we thought it was fireworks relatively close lighting up the low, overcast sky. But that was quickly dismissed as there were no booms. The trees in the front were still blocking the view so I walked out to the end of the yard.

Basically as nutty-ass lightning storm thingy was brewing to the north of us. It was mesmerizing. Flashes of light punctuated by streaks that seemed to trace the outline of the clouds. After a few moments, I realized this was one of those rare opportunites where you have great lightning views and no rain. Photos!

I busted into the house and ran to the basement to find my tripod. Got back upstairs and grabbed my camera, put it on the tripod, snapped in the remote and got back outside.

What I didn’t think of is that it was a comfy 72 with no humidity inside (courtesy of modern air conditioning), but a tropic 78 with 100% humidity outside. The camera fogged up…bad. I stood there watching the storm and cursing the camera. The storm seemed to be moving in a southeast direction meaning that while it was moving from behind the neighbor’s trees into the unobstructed northeast sky, it was also slowing moving towards us as it swept across the sky. After about 10 minutes or so, my camera was not even close to settling in to the outdoor conditions and the first raindrops started falling. I grabbed everything and by the time I hit the door, it was a torrential downpour.

I was pissed at the missed opportunity to capture that fucked up lightning, but glad I went out and saw the free light show.

Would’ve made some really neat photos though…

And yes, that’s a top-down look at a portion of the wall.

On Friday night around 2am I was in the back room of the basement (designated as my little play area) putting some files from my old PC on an external drive to move them to my new PC. All was good.

On Saturday morning, I awakened to the sounds of the kids yelling about the basement being flooded. Usually not a big deal except that we have about 800 square feet of totally finished basement that this has supposedly never happened to in the past. I make my way to the basement and am met with some seriously sloshy carpet. My first thought is, “How the hell did this much water get down here in just 8 hours…and after the rain stopped on Friday evening?”

After a few quick phone calls we checked the sump pump. It appeared to be working fine. There was water in the well, but it never overflowed and the pump was at least keeping pace. Our insurance company apparently doesn’t handle shit on weekends and told us to try to keep the mess to a minimum and an adjuster would call on Monday.

We called the guys who do carpet cleaning and clean-up for my wife at the hotel and they sent someone out immediately. The dude hit the basement and was like, “Whoa!” I think he expected a little leak and we were working our way to indoor pool by noon. He called out some additional help and they got to sucking up water. It turned out to be a futile effort, it seemed to be coming from everywhere and as fast as they sucked it up, more was there. They did the best they could and left late in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the weekend with fans, blowers and a shop vac trying to keep the water to a minimum. At it’s peak, you could step on the carpet and push down with your foot and get a puddle of water to form that covered your shoe.

On Monday we talked to the adjuster and he pretty much wanted to blow us off – kind of like, “You had a leak and your carpet got wet. We’re not paying for new carpet.” But we insisted it was a must-see situation and he agreed to come by and look on Tuesday. We spent Monday evening pulling carpet and pad from the basement and finally started realizing how much water had really come in.

On Tuesday the adjuster showed up and even with half the basement cleared of the sopping wet carpet he took one look around and said, “Whoa! The whole basement is soaked.”

He did his adjusterly duties and left us kind of hanging with no answer or suggestion other than to try our home warranty people. So we called them and they said we might be covered depending on the cause and the damage. They said they’d have a guy out on Thurday. We spent Tuesday night getting the rest of the carpet and pad out and kept up with the fans, blowers and shop wav doing our best to dry it out, but the smell was bad. On Wednesday it was more of the same – trying to air out and dry out the floor walls, doors – everything was damp, musty and generally shitty.

On Thursday the warranty people’s guy showed up and after a lengthy inspection came to no real conclusion beyond a drainpipe or two being less than optimal. He said he’s send his report to the warranty people.

We called the adjuster back and were like, “So what the fuck is going on?”

His reply was that until we figured out what the issue was, he couldn’t say whether we were covered or not. So he said he’d send out some engineeer crew on Friday.

Today those guys showed up and, of everyone we’ve dealt with, they seemed the most knowledgable and useful. After a full basement and outdoor inspection, their conclusion was that they weren’t exactly sure how or why the basement flooded, but the were two drain pipes that were hooked up less than optimally and could have been causing water to collect around the foundation, but that was just process of elimination and they’d send the report to the adjuster and go from there – which could include a reutrn visit to look deeper (read: start ripping walls apart in the basement).

I already know the insurance adjuster doesn’t work on weekends, so I expect nothing before Monday. And since we’re holding off until then with the insurance, we figured we’d give the warranty people until Monday too.

So here we sit almost a full week after the flood with no answers and a basement that up to this point was the kids main hangout and also home to the pinball machine, my podcast setup, all the books we own, my drums, the kids’ computer and toys and stuff like that (luckily we didn’t get around to putting a TV or real furniture down there yet) is now a cold, damp, stinky area with exposed concrete and tack strip with everything piled in the bathroom down there because it was the only place that remained remotely dry (the rest is just piled up here on the first floor) that is mostly unusable and a disappointment.

The walls are damp and staing to get wavy and soft in spots. All of the doors show water damage and have warped to the point that they won’t close correctly. The carpet is long gone. The cement is still damp. The smell of wet still lingers.

Here’s to hearing something good from someone on Monday because if we’re left to repair all of this on our own, it’s going to be a while. And it sure would suck to pay for a whole house and then only be able to use 2/3rds of it.

I’m pretty sure this is the first time in my life that I’ve seen a full-on rainbow arc across the sky like that in person. Usually it’s just a little piece or a quarter-circle kind of thing.

I only had my phone with me so the image is two shots stitched together.

Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

Always some tornado watches/warnings when the big storms come through. I’ve done a couple of hurricanes and a blizzard or two in my day…why not a Tornado too?

No, not the snow – the stupid hysteria that precedes snow in a community of people who see snow as an exceptional occurance, not the norm.

Jamie already has staff saying they probably won’t be in tomorrow and people wanting to leave before it starts tonight. The news teasers are touting all the latest school closing and delay info – the whole shebang.

For a forecasted two-to-four inches of snow…sigh.

In my eyes, snow isn’t even an issue until you get 6 inches…and even then, it’s “drive slow” not “don’t go out” – 2 to 4 inches? Pfft.

Maybe I’m the weird one?

I dig the snow. One of the things I don’t particularly care for in Dayton is the lack of snow. (Granted it does snow here – just not as much or as often as I’d like to see)

I grew up 30 miles north of Pittsburgh – it’s supposed to snow when it gets cold. Cold without snow is stupid. Even more so when you get to this time of the year and are in a holiday frame of mind – there HAS to be snow on the ground.

Speaking of which, it is my understanding that only about 25% of the country gets a ‘white christmas’ (that’d be a good porno title). I’m not sure if that stat means that only 25% of the country is capable of having a white christmas or that on any given year the average is that 25% of the country has a white christmas or what.

At any rate it means that 75% of the country sucks at Christmas.

I’d do so well in the New England states…