water management, part 2.

The leaks are all gone now, thank goodness. No more dodging dirty droplets every time I go to the sink. Ah, but there is a new dihydrogen monoxide problem.

We had major rain in Boone two nights ago. A couple of the high-traffic highways into town were closed. The final counts put as at about six inches, though I heard another town near here got nine. But oh, the water. The creek near the apartment was suddenly huge, and had we been more entrepreneurial-minded, we would have started selling tickets for white-water rafting. (Well, that and if the creek didn't go under a parking lot a little ways down the road.) The point is, there was a lot of water.

Have I ever mentioned to you that I live in a basement apartment?

I came out of my morning shower yesterday to see a long dark streak on the carpet in the living room. I stepped near the streak in what appeared to be a normal area, but no. My footstep was rewarding with squelching. Lovely. I had to change socks twice yesterday because I kept forgetting and walking out to the living room.

The whole living room was wet. We left a note on the rental office door, and the landlord came down and brought the rug doctor. We moved all the furniture but the sofas into the kitchen. You look in the kitchen now and you see a high-backed easy chair and a coffee table sitting in the exact middle. I want to sit in it with a glass of cognac and talk about this evening's Masterpiece Theatre (Actually, I've never seen Masterpiece Theatre, so I only assume that is what it looks like, mostly because that's what it looks like on Monsterpiece Theatre, the parody they do on Sesame Street). The couches were left in the living room and he just rug doctored around them.

Now we have a dehumidifier running full-time to dry up the rest of the carpet and a funny smell greeting every nose that comes through the door. We have to rotate the couches so that the area under them can dry. One is standing on its end with the other sitting down at odd angles. Our living room looks like a performance art piece. I keep expecting to look out and see a girl with a blindfold on reading the newspaper while sitting on the upturned couch.

The carpet looks much cleaner. And no worries, there were no damages to important stuff, though my green loveseat may smell funny from now on. Well, it smelled funny before, but now it's a whole new brand of funny. I started thinking a few days ago about whether I had anything important in the floor of my room in case of a flood. I was rather impressed with myself that I didn't, and then I realized my computer tower was in the floor and properly freaked out. (However, if it were ruined, perhaps I could get the rental company to buy me a new one. Do I hear flat-panel monitor?)

The rain has stopped now, the dehumidifier is doing a good job, and soon we'll be back to normal. We are all waiting to see what kind of new water problem we develop next. Perhaps Krystal's water bed will burst. I cannot wait.