Antidiluvian


Friday morning, I said:

Flooding in the Rogue Valley. I widened a ditch a little this morning, curing the problem as far as I’m concerned. The rest of the world can take care of whatever pooling & rising waters are left; I know I did my part.


Two hours later Bridgette phoned me, noting that the roof sprung multiple leaks and the latex paint on the ceiling was swelling into delicately strained nipples along the seams in the drywall. While we planned the details of the ceiling’s mastectomy she strolled into the living room.

Well, waded into the living room.

Our living room is 20′ x 30′, and water had entered under the front wall and spread over about 400 of the 600 square feet. Stomping feet on the (white!) carpet raised splashes. The tiled foyer had half an inch of standing water.

I widened a ditch a little this morning, curing the problem as far as I’m concerned. …I know I did my part.


The irony runs deep around my house, and pools up in sinkholes of sardonica.

Forty minutes later I was home and standing in mud and water up to my knees, broadening drainage ditches more radically than I had earlier. I laid a trench over the lawn, which was turning into a green basin poised to pour its contents into the south end of the house. The rest of the day was spent using a carpet shampooer to slurp the water from the carpets.

So was Saturday.

And most of Sunday. We removed over 40 gallons of water from the living room.

The baseboard heaters and fireplace stove have been running full out to dry the carpets, with fans to speed the process. The house is now a steaming slice of Purgatory teetering on the edge of Mildewed Hell, Erysiphaceae demons below us clamoring for our fall. If heat and prayer do not work, we will have to baptise the living room floor with Holy Bleach to rid it of the last fungal sin.

The ways of the Lord are dark, but never pleasant, and additonal carpet cleaning with chlorine may be the only reward the virtuous may hope for.

11 thoughts on “Antidiluvian”

    1. Oh, yes. I keep trying to make it hotter, but the carpet is still unpurified. It must be spiritually constipated or something. I think Iread something about the spiritual issues of wall-to-wall thick pile….

        1. Oh, absolutely. That’s the travesty of modern “civilization”; carpets pulling away from their ancestral ply, forsaking common maintenance in favor of chemical protectants…to get a really deep quality in your floor covering anymore you have to have a Berber, still close to its tribal roots. You never hear a Berber claiming to be above its pad; it knows that, rug and pad alike, all are part of the great Floor Covering of life, and shows respect that reflects that.

          But you try to convince common carpet of that sort of thing — hah! They say that they’ve gone wall to wall, that’s their lookout, and to the devil with other considerations. Wear? Colorfastness? Not on their map.

          I’d as soon have sheet vinyl, for all the spirituality you can hope to get from today’s carpet.

  1. I’d settle for wood floors but Dan keeps saying no. I hate carpeting. too difficult to clean when the dog has an accident or someone spills a glass of wine or tracks in mud.. .. 🙁 would much rather have hardwood floors.

      1. au’naturel? (sp?).. nice.. I love the smell of the outdoors after a gentle rain. The fresh clean air, and the clarity of life around me. Too bad we’ve gone and smogged it all up with factories and crappy engines that polute, not to mention other polution like plastic bags that take thousands of years to disintegrate, or styrofoam, or broken appliances that no longer work, and no one wants to take the time to try to figure out why. Some of the stuff man creates, can be recycled, that’s a given. But at what cost to our environment?….I can remember the commercials 20 yrs ago of the Native American Indians walking along the riverbanks picking up trash… and the camera zooms in on one whom is shedding a tear for the harm befelled our beautiful land. :(….

        Didn’t mean to jack your post, Ya just reminded me of why I dislike commercialism so much. It’s taken much of the beauty out of life and replaced it with dismal promise of a weak future. 🙁

        I suspect the flooding is Mother Nature’s way of dealing with our abuse of the lands. When we have a wound, we wash it with water, to clean it, so it can begin healing. I think Mother Nature does the same thing, to give the lands a chance to heal, if that makes sense.

        1. I see no sign, here in my living room, that Mom Nature is having any health problems. In fact, she seems downright frisky and ready for some lovin’, and I’d just as soon see her go bother someone else for her lovies.

          I find I don’t like the Great Outdoors quite as much when they move indoors with me.

          As for jacking posts…girl, who are you apologizing to? I am the Ultimate Post-Jacker, I am the Reaver In The Comments, the Mad Diverter of Conversation. Where I go, meaning leaves, ears down and tail tucked under, continuity following in an even meeker posture.

          Er.

          So. Ah, no apology necessary, I’m sure.

          1. I think for me, I love the outdoors, but I am certain were it to find it’s home in my livingroom, uninvited, it would be a bit of a different story. Though my livingroom strangely resembles a small jungle, I have yet to find any unwanted guests, save the one lone worm that found it’s self drying in the sun by the television on the beautiful blue carpeting. (pest control says it must’ve come in by way of the fireplace. I call bullshit.) Anyway there was a cricket in the livingroom one time, and a grasshopper another. (I had put the plants all outside for some fresh air and sunshine. I remembered to water them, then a couple days later I brought them all back inside, as the weather had become quite heated. I didn’t want the plants to die of dehydration. As luck would have it, I had a couple of stow-aways, hitching rides on two of my favorite plants. *laughs* scared my lower body into spastic activity, for a few minutes. I quickly captured the two creatures and set them free out of doors… I can’t even kill a spider. I have to capture it and release it back into the wild. Vermin? a way different story that stems from a horrific memory from childhood.

            I think you might be right in Mother Nature’s desire for affection instead of abuse. And I do understand your lack of desire to participate in her love-fest. 🙂 We’ve been pretty fortunate that we haven’t had that happen yet, but I expect it to happen in the coming months, even years. Change. The atmospheric changes, the planetary changes, the agricultural changes.. I expect it will some day happen. No matter. We do not have flood insurance, and aren’t going to pay $$ for something that may or may not happen when we’re barely living hand to mouth now. I have, however looked around the house to see what if anything should be moved upstairs in the event it does happen. I can’t think of anything, except perhaps us, and the dogs. Everything else is material and can at some point be replaced. Pictures, we have in our hearts and mind, to keep. Beyond that, everything else is incidental. 🙂

            I guess sometimes I feel like I’m getting offtopic and always try to be aware as not to offend or insult the OP. Good netiquette and all. 🙂
            But I do thank you for your assurance. 🙂

  2. Wow, it’s too bad I don’t live closer to you so I could help you clean up.

    My drive way got washed out a little, as long as my car can make it up and down (and my Triumph this morning) I’m OK. I think bleach is a good idea for your route. I hate carpet.
    Love you, hope it gets better there!

    1. I agree on all points; I wish you lived closer (or I did), I think there is bleach in my future, and I am less than fond of the carpet right now.

      I am pleased to report that, even in the midst of deluge, things are lovely here. Love you, too–

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