Laura's Day

I woke up this morning and found an expanse of fast moving water outside my front door. This isn't out of the ordinary, because we live right next to a river. It just got a lot bigger overnight.

Some people would have been frightened by all of this, but I know what step it made it to when I was a kid and we were sure we would have to flee. We didn't have to then, and I knew we weren't going to have any real problems due to this flood. I was just annoyed. Because I knew I was going to have to do something I didn't want to do...

Our family has a freaky white pipe that leads out from the house. If this pipe is submerged in water, all kinds of bad things happen, including the flooding of our basement. I had a flood on my hands, and there was only one thing I could do.

Clad in my pajamas, my fuzzy robe, Uggs, and my dad's over-sized and super-warm coat, I decided I had to cap the pipe, for our safety. Our meaning mine and the pets.

I went into the garage, and got the long curved section of pipe. Then I took the lid portion, and put it on the curved part.

I took both and went out to the "dry" creek where the pipe lives. The ground was all mud and nastiness, and I couldn't reach the pipe from the safe part. So I half-slid, half-climbed down to the pipe. Putting one foot on each of the two rocks on either side of the pipe, I reached out and managed to put the lid on.

After, I found that the pipe, though attached, failed to cling well, as it slid forward and then leaned sideways. Crap.

I decided it was okay. I would be just fine.

I climbed back up, then looked down and pondered the fact that water was still rising. It could at any moment rise far enough to liberate the cap from the pipe and take it far enough away that I could no longer use it. Or replace it. And I didn't want that.

So I went back down.

Meanwhile Darcy decided this wasn't very safe. She knew the thing I was doing was important, and I had to do it. Otherwise I wouldn't be acting so stupid. So she came down next to me, and she came down and rescued a stick, just like she thought I was doing. And she kept it up while I grabbed the pipe and leaned forward all the way until I could push the cap all the way on.

Mercifully, I didn't fall face-first into the nasty river water, which during a flood is part water, part animal poop from all the farms around us. And it smells like it.

I was victorious, and I proved yet again that single girls can do it on their own.