In the gutters

Even though I have been in my house almost a year (end of August), the seasonal changes and meteorological bedlam that this region suffers through is always intriguing. As each season--let alone day, week, month--arrives, I watch my house withstand the elements and cave to their tenacity in various ways. This winter? half a fence came down. Last fall? a gazillion leaves from the oaks came down. Early spring? buckets and buckets of rain came down (fast) and stayed three inches deep in my side yard. Then it leaked into my basement. Ugh. This latter situation is now a common theme around here.....

Yesterday, we got about 30 minutes of balls-out rain. Sheets. Walls. Pounding rain. And once again, my side yard flooded. I have tricks now, but these are only in response to Mother Nature not anything that will curb her sinister humor toward The Buff. So, out came the pool pump to empty the window wells out to the street. I have even had that sucker sitting on the ground draining it! Several old towels and a ShopVac dried the basement floor. A de-humidifier is in my future. Another contractor will soon get some of my student loan money to fix it, I'm sure. Stimulus check, indeed. *Sigh*

Anyway, I also noticed that my gutters were not draining and instead overflowing. Badly. All of them. Around the house. Even in such a severe and potent storm as yesterday, these puppies threw in the towel quickly and started spilling. Hence, they are full of gunk which hasn't been cleaned out since I lived here, and probably a lot longer.

I slept in today (not sure why, exactly) and have the next three days completely empty to work on the Diss. Day and night. Son is out of town, boyfriend is out of town, Judy is in town. I may predict that this hunkering down that I will do until Friday afternoon COULD result in the completion of Chapter 2. FOR REAL. I had a HUGE day at the BECPL/Buffalo Historical Society on Friday and feel better even before I begin to write.

But, the weather calls for another blast of rain later on. Gutters beckon. If I get them done, maybe then I can resume "hermit" status and just fucking writing this thing.

I'm not afraid of heights, and my father gave an old ladder that will suit the job. At least I can throw on the Nano while working. The worst is the goop that comes out of the gutters. Yucky sucky.

Not sure I can put together a specifically "gutter"-based playlist. Maybe go for "rain" themes. Tons of those. "Rain Song," "No Rain," "Red Rain," "Stormy Weather," "Rainiy Days and Mondays," "Here Comes the Rain Again," on and on.

Off I go into the wild goopy yonder. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, I'll have lots of writing already in black, some in blue, and no red (check back post for "seeing red"). As long as I don't fall off the ladder, of course..... *smile*