The Softball that Wasn’t PT 4: The Great Flood
“Come, you and all your household into the ark,” Genesis 7:1
After a long exhausting day of work, I decided the kids and I needed to kick off winter break with a little Christmas magic for the evening. We met up with some friends at a local venue to drink hot coco, eat kettle corn, and ride a 45-minute train ride through a parade of glittering Christmas lights. The kiddos were so excited and immediately got dressed in their warm snuggly clothes, hats, and mittens. I did one more walk through of the house- just wanting to make sure all the lights were off, and doors were locked up.
As any mother knows it’s also essential that everyone uses the bathroom before leaving. This of course is always a futile attempt to avoid having to drop whatever you’re doing to check out the bathrooms of wherever we are. One final flush of the toilet and we were off to the Glittering Lights. The moment we stepped out of the car that amazing feeling only Christmas can bring washed over me. There was a crispness to the air. The smell of kettle corn tickled my nostrils and made my mouth water. We hurried over to the ticketing counter where we were greeted with hot coco and that amazing bag of happiness I smelled from my car. As we waited for our turn to board the train, the kids and I took some photos with Santa and the giant statue of a friendly polar bear wearing a Christmas hat. The entire experience was full of Christmas joy and excitement.
(As Christmas joy continued to spread throughout our little group, we were completely unaware of the ominous septic back up slowly engulfing my house like a mini typhoon destroying everything in its path.)
From the comfort of the train, we “entered the forest of swirly twirly gumdrops and through the Lincoln tunnel” … just kidding, that’s a different story. We did, however, experience a huge Elvis light up with dancing hips, an entire herd of flashing Raptors and a shark that was electrifying. Once the train ride was over and our kettle corn bags empty, we loaded up back into the car with a destination of home. The kids were tired, and I was ready to get them nestled into their beds for visions of sugar plums to dance their heads. The streets were quiet on the drive to the house; not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Like a heard of wildebeests, the kids threw open the door and I heard the splash. And what do my wandering eyes should appear, but a lake on the floor and my reflection like a mirror. In a desperate attempt to soap up as much as I could, I grabbed all the towels in the house and a mop bucket. I quickly realized I was going to need a bigger bucket or some serious help… To Google!
Given the fact that my emergency flooding call was after hours, I cringed at the thought of the cost. The minutes slowly ticked by like hours. All I could do was pace the small dry areas of my now warped, laminate wood floors. Finally, my water vacuum hero appeared, and I showed him all the areas water had seeped to. The worst of the flooding took place in the Harry Potter room (my storage under the stairs). My heart sank as I opened the door to show the mitigation man and realized my paintings sat in the back of this room. Just then our Kelly cat decided she wanted to go exploring. To her surprised and horror, the floor was of course, soaking wet. She desperately clawed and climbed her way to higher ground, finding safety on the furthest back holiday storage box but Dun Duh Duh!! Mitigation Man to the rescue!! After moving everything out of the Harry Potter room and piling it all in my dinning room, Kelly’s safe haven storage box was next on the list. He bent down to pick up the box fully expecting Kelly to jump off, but she was no dummy. She rode the storage box out of the Harry Potter room like Aladdin on his magic carpet. As the box cleared the doorway from the watery horror, she gingerly jumped down and let out a meow of gratitude.
Two hours and five thunderous industrial fans later, we waved goodbye to Mitigation Man. Sugar plums did not dance in my visions that night. I laid in bed with adrenaline in my veins and the violent buzzing of overpowered fans in my ear. This was going to be a long four days….