A Short Story that will Need Hours of Cleanup

Prolog

Man Selling Us Graestone: The basement doesn’t leak.

George, for ten years: The basement doesn’t leak!

Gutters

The gutters around the house constantly plugged up and dumped water, especially near the patio. During COVID, we decided to stimulate the economy and fix our gutters. We chose LeafFilter to level our gutters, clean them, and install their leaf guard gizmos. It didn’t take them long; within a day, they were gone along with considerable economic stimulus. During the spring of this year, it didn’t rain enough to know if the gutters guards were guarding the gutters.

In the last four days, we have had 10.5 inches of rain. I went out as the rain sluiced down and watched my gutter pipes expelling water at a tremendous rate. I was pleased. The gutter by the patio was working so well it blew the line off the connector. I happily went out in the rain and reattached it.

The rain passed, and we were happy. This storm dumped half as many inches of rain as we got during the entire last year.

This morning, I went to the basement to get my coat and noticed water on the floor. I looked up, thinking, did a pipe burst? This basement doesn’t leak! Close inspection showed the water was coming from under cabinets near the wall where the gutter pipe had given me trouble.

We are still cleaning. Luckily we didn’t have many things sitting directly on the floor, but we sucked up water for an hour. Then I went out and leveled the pipe that carries the water away from the house and patio. I also made sure the line wasn’t going to blow loose during heavy rain.

Epilog

The basement leaks.

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I spent my life teaching 6th graders. We have always been involved in church. Now I spend my days in an old stone house, wandering our four acres, and writing.