Drama Made From Drips

I have 29 industrial fans in my home, and 2 super-capacity dehumidifiers. True, some of the fans are now turned off. But still. That's a whole heck of a lot of fans. They're noisy, and they make a lot of heat. It's about 99F upstairs this afternoon. And humid. Yep, that's where the bedrooms are, in case you were wondering. We decided that air mattresses and the living room couch were more palatable for the time being, and we're camping out in the living room.

You know, the industrial dry-the-carts-at-Walmart kind of fans.

The carpets are torn up upstairs, so the fans can be tucked under them. The pads in those areas are gone. The nice workers drilled some holes in our ceiling. That's so the wind can get in there and dry things off. My husband enjoys telling folks it looks like someone took a 50-cal anti-tank gun to out home. He's not far wrong.

The gray dots are the holes. There's tons of them.

What happened? Our 2nd floor sink was clogged & got left on a little while we were out for 11 1/2 hours on Friday afternoon. Things were damp completely soaked when we got home. Down the stairs, then through them and down the basement stairs too. Nearly every room in our home is affected. All those fans are using up all our home's capacity for powering things, so our AC is unplugged and our washer and dryer are out of commission, my microwave trips the circut breakers, and I haven't dared try the dishwasher.

But.

The living room was least affcted, so we have a flat, dry spot, large enough to sleep the whole family. And it's got the best windows and the best circulation in the house.

Speaking of circulation, it's been unseasonably cool this weekend, so the air our little box fan is pumping into the living room is not only cooler than than the indoor sauna this has created, it's cooler than what we would have set the AC to. So the living room and computer room are pretty bearable to be in.

Speaking of the weather, it's been rainy, so we haven't needed to think about the garden. But not so rainy that we couldn't get outside for the boys to play in the only "normal" area on our property: the yard.

With all that water, which was in nearly every room in our house, we didn't loose any personal items. Not.One.Thing. Not the books on the bookshelves, not the scrapbooks placed on the top of bookshelves located directly under the upstairs bathrom's sink in my main floor music room. Not the stuff in the boxes under the stairs (though most of those boxes are trashed, the stuff inside was no more than damp). Not the pictures on the walls. Nothing. Only the house is damaged. I find that simply miraculous.

This process is proving to be massively inconvenient. Massively. But that's all. I feel so blessed. And I'm trying so hard to appreciate the blessings and stay cheerful. Wish me luck on that - I'm pretty short on sleep. But still. How can I be too upset when the hand of the Lord is so clearly evident?