The flood waters are slowly receding, but our sewer problems are still here. My stomach has been tied up in knots over this. We can flush, shower, and run the dishwasher, but laundry is a problem. Think of my sewer line as a slow drain; the water from the washing machine is just too much for the sewer. When we put too much water into our sewer line, we get sewer back-up from the floor drain in my laundry room. I’ve mopped that floor at least 20 times in the past week. Something happened to our pipes during the flood, I think, just enough to get them out of whack. Fixing them will be expensive.
My mind has been on the sewer so much this week that I don’t want to spend any more time writing about it.
Last Sunday, we went exploring to see what the Des Plaines River looks like. Getting across the river has been a challenge; fortunately, I usually stay on the west side of the river. Ed, however, has to cross the river for work, and we go across the river for church. On Sunday morning, several streets were still closed, but local traffic was allowed on this street.
Friends of ours live in the flooded area of Des Plaines, and they are staying with a friend until the river recedes from their basement. They don’t see any reason to try to stay in their house right now; the temperatures have been cold and they wouldn’t have heat or electricity. Besides that, the flood water is full of contaminants. As soon as the water is gone, their clean up begins.
Sunday afternoon, we went to the forest preserve by our house. We saw an awful lot of water.
We had more rain yesterday; it didn’t make the flooding worse, but it didn’t help the current flood situation (or the knots in my stomach). Today was a beautiful, sunny day. Just having the sun shine helps a lot, even though it barely reached 50 degrees. I hope we have more days like this!
As Lily said the other day, “I guess the drought is over!”
