I don't think "House flooding crisis" is a stage of grief

So! What have I done all day today? Mope? Nope. Eat too much ice cream? A little, but that wasn't the one I was thinking of. Did I move on to the 'bargaining' stage or the 'sadness' stage? Uh... not really.

I bailed the house out.

Our first leak was in the basement, behind the washing machine. It destroyed several boxes of books before we found it. After intensive mopping and some resourceful placement of buckets and barriers, we got it somewhat under control. Then it only needed to be mopped every half-hour.

This leak occurred because we have no gutters along the back of our house. We will soon... maybe next week... but, alas, our tropical storm hit too soon. The water drips right off the rubber roof into the ground, and then it keeps going until it enters the foundation. We really need to seal up that foundation, but we also need gutters.

Instead of gutters, we put a row of plastic storage bins along the rear of the house. They needed to be emptied every hour or so, or else they would overflow. They helped turn the basement gush into a mere trickle.

Upstairs, the roof held firm, but the flashing leaked. There was also dampness around the chimney. The builder came over and took note of the weak spots. We patched them up with some sticky tar tape, and he'll have to wait for better weather to repair them.

Now the rain has taken a break, and supposedly it will stop for good late this evening. So, yeah, I haven't been dwelling too much on adoption today.

Except...

...it occurs to me that this might have been a very different experience with the kiddo around. But not too bad, nonetheless. We managed to keep it relatively low-stress, considering what was going on. AwesomeCloud might have fretted about the house leaking, and about Mama and Baba rushing around and being busy and frantic. But he also might have learned a little bit of resourcefulness and problem-solving under pressure.

I have to go stoke the fire now. We're trying to dry out the house. I think it's working a little.

Today is another day of the multi-day mourning of Ted Kennedy, isn't it? I am saddened at his passing. He worked hard at his job. I didn't vote for him during the last election, but I acknowledge the huge strides he's made for civil rights and the welfare of the working class. And I can't help being sad to think of him dying of cancer, in much the same way my mother-in-law died of cancer. She was a teacher, and thus a government employee, and like Senator Kennedy, she had the very best in health care. And it's still a very difficult way to go, cancer. Imagine what it would be like to die of cancer without any health insurance. For my MiL, it would still have been painful, but 5 years earlier. And we'd have the knowledge hanging over our heads that chemo had a chance of saving her, maybe, if only we could afford to give it a try. In fact, it almost worked. She got some very expensive, experimental treatment, all paid for by her superb Teachers' Union health care plan, and it came within a handful of cancer cells of sending her into remission.

I remember that, how hard it was, and I grieve for the Kennedy clan who had to go through it too. I also grieve for the thousands of families who have to skip right to the died-of-cancer part because they had no other option.

Okay, really going to tend that fire now.