Hiya Folks!

Still trying to find the perfect time of day to write a post.  It is now after dinner and nearly time to wrap my arm.  Thankfully I washed bandages last night, so I don’t have to run downstairs to get that started.  Buffy has been run up and down the stairs and is quietly resting after cleaning her tongue on my scarf.

I have been using my previous posting time for nappage. Really needed it today after volunteering at school, then running errands, then returning to school for another volunteer job.  My sister says I have to slow down or I’ll get sick again.  I think she’s right, but just not sure  how to do that.  And, it might be too late because there were four absent today in my first classroom and my throat is sore …

Dang.

So, I thought I’d tell you a funny story about the rat.  Granted, it was not a funny story at the time.

It must have been 1987 or so, in the summer, because we still lived in the teeny tiny house in Northeast.  (Ilooked it up. It was July 23-24 of 1987) I think we figured one time that the entire first floor of the house would have fit in the space that our living and dining rooms now occupy. We were cozy. With one bathroom.

There was a storm cell that centered over Minneapolis that night.  It started to rain in earnest in the late evening.   And it rained. And poured. And the thunder boomed and the lightning flashed.  But it did not move on; the thunder did not fade into the distance. The storm kept up with its cloudburst rain and its loud fireworks. Half an hour, one, two, three hours with no let up in sight. I went down to the basement  to see if there was water coming in.

Oh yes.  It was pouring through the walls in streams as large as my finger.  I had about five buckets catching the water that was not coming in through any window, but through the  soil which was so saturated.  We had had another big rain a few days earlier; there was no place for the rain to go.

And still the rain came and the thunder and lightning continued. I had never experienced a storm like this that didn’t move on eventually.  I thought it was the end of the world.

We got 11 inches of rain that night.

The next day was business as usual for this stay at home mom with two preschoolers. I remember that I had a moment to run to the bathroom, so I took it.

And after I finished and flushed, I stayed in the bathroom, maybe to put on a little eyeliner.  It was quiet with just me in the teeny tiny bathroom. Then I heard a funny noise like the toilet was still running.  So, I lifted up the lid.

And saw a rat doing the backstroke around and around in my toilet.

I slammed down that lid so fast and flushed. And flushed. And flushed.

And then called the hubster and proceeded to have hysterics.

Followed by a few more flushings, just to make sure.

All that rain had made the the water in the sewers rise so that the ledge that led to our plumbing was now within reach for the enterprising  little climber/swimmer.  It was a temporary problem.  The water level would go down and the problem would go away.

But it took a long time before I was comfortable sitting in that bathroom.

 

See? Funny now; not so funny then.

Have a Fun Filled  Friday!

Love,

Janet