Rain

I like the rain. It has always been a comfort to me, and a sound and weather that I love to experience.

This was, of course, while I lived in the desert. The rain there is sparse, short, sometimes powerful and angry, and always welcomed, even in too-great a quantity. Here, however, the rain is not such a happy event, I'm finding.

Our house is at the end of a cul-de-sac. Directly in front of our house is a storm drain. However, our position on the block means two things in relation to that all-important storm drain-- a) most of our property is at or below the level of the storm drain so, if water gets past it, our house gets it and b) the snow plows pile up the majority of the snow right at the drain-- clogging it with layer upon layer of ice.

I've been out trying to break up the inches-thick layers of ice around where I believe the drain to be. I'm wading out into inch to two inch deep pools of water. I have dug now four holes in areas I believe the drain to be in, one about 6" deep and then I struck concrete-- too close. Another about the same depth and a foot away-- nothing but more ice, so hard-packed I couldn't break through it any farther. Another about a foot past the second and about 4 inches deep-- nothing. The last way too far out into the road area, but just to try it and about 3 inches deep-- nada. I then put a bunch of salt down on the area, hoping it can worm its way through the ice and find the drain. Once a hole is made, the water will do the rest of the work for me.

We have water all around our house. Most of our driveway is an ice rink covered in a solid inch of water now and rising. Most of the water is finding its way to the path to the porch and front door, following that to the stairs, then going under the porch to the side yard. With luck, the majority of the water continues all the way to the bottom of the property where there is a water drainage ditch dug to a different storm drain.

Our sump pump has started going off regularly and for large quantities when it does. Which is good, as that means vast sums of water are not pooling under the house and threatening to come inside, as has happened to M two seasons in a row until her dad (with very little help but a lot of kibbitzing from me) installed last year. I do the rounds each time I feed the fire and I see no signs of water in any of the usual suspect areas. But the fact that so much is pooled all around us, and moving past us, has me concerned.

I see the maintenance people working on the roads around us. I'm hopeful they will soon reach our cul-de-sac and realize the issue and work on it. I may even go out and talk with them if they don't seem to.