Mother Nature's way of saying...
gumbyfan
Posts: 5,168 ✭✭✭
..."stop being a packrat and mooching off your parents for free storage!"
We've been getting hammered with some pretty severe weather here in southeastern Wisconsin the past few days. Just yesterday, at my parents' home, they got about 5" of rain in less than 3 hours. That, coupled with the fact that the city maintenance crew blocked the runoff pipe from the sump pump while adjusting their culvert, there was a flood in the basement. Everyone is ok (for the most part), and we caught the water before it got too bad. I just happened to be there yesterday afternoon when we realized that the basement was under water, so my parents appreciated the extra set of hands.
After rerouting the runoff so the water would actually flow out of the house, the sump pump did great and got almost completely caught up. A midnight purchase of a 12 gallon shopvac turned into a 4am of finally having no standing water. After a few hours of sleep on their couch, I went back to the basement to assess the damage. Unfortunately, many physical remembrances of some great times were destroyed. My first little league homerun ball was ruined. The first ball I ever caught at a major league game (a Ruben Sierra foul ball) was ruined. Also destroyed was a box of autographed Brewers cards from the days when I'd do the ol' postgame stalk. Kevin Seitzer, Jaime Navarro, Bill Wegman, Pat Listach, Greg Brock (and on and on)...nobody's to most, but still great memories for me. I lost a lot of music memorabilia that I had collected over the years as well.
Fortunately, nothing of any real monetary value was destroyed. I was able to clear the blockage in the runoff pipe and the basement is now completely dry and empty (let me tell you that disassembling one of these and carrying it up a flight of stairs on a few hours of sleep is not fun). Tomorrow I'll go back and mop with some bleach just to be sure everything is clean and ready for us to take everything back down.
The real kick in the cojones, though, was the one item that survived. Back in 1993 I decided to try to get a team signed ball since I went to so many games. I had gotten about 10 or 11 signatures already, and then out from the team exit came then owner, Bud Selig. I thought it might be interesting to get the team owner's sig on the ball. He obliged and put his big, bold signature right on the sweet spot which I had previously reserved for Robin Yount's signature. I was so saddened that I didn't even continue to get signatures on the ball.
Oh well, life goes on. Sorry if I bored, but I just felt like sharing.
Craig
We've been getting hammered with some pretty severe weather here in southeastern Wisconsin the past few days. Just yesterday, at my parents' home, they got about 5" of rain in less than 3 hours. That, coupled with the fact that the city maintenance crew blocked the runoff pipe from the sump pump while adjusting their culvert, there was a flood in the basement. Everyone is ok (for the most part), and we caught the water before it got too bad. I just happened to be there yesterday afternoon when we realized that the basement was under water, so my parents appreciated the extra set of hands.
After rerouting the runoff so the water would actually flow out of the house, the sump pump did great and got almost completely caught up. A midnight purchase of a 12 gallon shopvac turned into a 4am of finally having no standing water. After a few hours of sleep on their couch, I went back to the basement to assess the damage. Unfortunately, many physical remembrances of some great times were destroyed. My first little league homerun ball was ruined. The first ball I ever caught at a major league game (a Ruben Sierra foul ball) was ruined. Also destroyed was a box of autographed Brewers cards from the days when I'd do the ol' postgame stalk. Kevin Seitzer, Jaime Navarro, Bill Wegman, Pat Listach, Greg Brock (and on and on)...nobody's to most, but still great memories for me. I lost a lot of music memorabilia that I had collected over the years as well.
Fortunately, nothing of any real monetary value was destroyed. I was able to clear the blockage in the runoff pipe and the basement is now completely dry and empty (let me tell you that disassembling one of these and carrying it up a flight of stairs on a few hours of sleep is not fun). Tomorrow I'll go back and mop with some bleach just to be sure everything is clean and ready for us to take everything back down.
The real kick in the cojones, though, was the one item that survived. Back in 1993 I decided to try to get a team signed ball since I went to so many games. I had gotten about 10 or 11 signatures already, and then out from the team exit came then owner, Bud Selig. I thought it might be interesting to get the team owner's sig on the ball. He obliged and put his big, bold signature right on the sweet spot which I had previously reserved for Robin Yount's signature. I was so saddened that I didn't even continue to get signatures on the ball.
Oh well, life goes on. Sorry if I bored, but I just felt like sharing.
Craig
0
Comments
Sounds like it took some good sentimental stuff, but at least you still have the memories. That kinda stuff is the stuff that insurance can't replace. Sorry for your loss,
Mike
Sorry to hear that some of your stuff got destroyed. It's never a good feeling.
One of the things I've taken to doing it to store all my valuable stuff (that isn't on display) in waterproof plastic bins. I also keep the bin with my most valuable stuff relatively close to our front door (i.e. in our front hall closet), so that I can grab it out the way out the door in the case of emergency.
Matt