Two Floods in a Week

I'm enjoying this little walk down memory lane, but I must take a break and write about the water issues we've been having.

It all started last week when I was enjoying some evening time on the porch of peace.

Now one of the things I love most about SoCal is the lack of bugs. You can actually sit outside in the evening and come in bite free.

It's a beautiful thing.

Well, I was sitting there when I felt this terrible sensation, a bite.

I looked down at my arm, and sure enough, a mosquito!

I have not seen a single mosquito in two years. My mind began to reel. Where would this little pest have come from.

Then I remembered the pool pump.

We had some problems with it this summer, and since the pool guy fixed it there has been a little puddle out by it.

Now, if this were Il, I would have been on that puddle so fast heads would spin, but being in SoCal, I thought nothing of it.

The next day, I grabbed the pool guy and asked him what was creating the puddle.

He told me he didn't know, that I should check the drain underneath it.

Right, the drain.

So after he left the kids and I located the drain, and discovered that when they fixed the pump, some yuck from it got down in the drain and clogged it. The water was teeming with mosquito larva!

Yuck!!

The kids and I proceeded to cleaning it out. There was a whole process which included the water backing up into another drain.

I was pretty proud of myself for discovering the problem and eradicating it.

Then today happened.

Josh and I spent a great morning together which included a walk to Starbucks and a swim.

Daddy and the other kids got home and we had some down time.

The we heard the yelp.

It was JuneBug and she was barking at the door.

We figured she needed to go out, but she doesn't generally bark to go out...

I looked out the back patio door and saw a shimmer.

Huh, that's weird. Looked kind of like a mirage on the patio.

I got up and realized it was no mirage, the patio was flooded.

As I ran outside, I realized the pool was flooded too!

See Joshi had turned the hose on to fill up his floaty piranha, and forgot to turn the water off.

It had been on all day!

The area I had spent drying out this week, a swamp!

The pool, even with the edge.

We all got to work distributing the water to plants, grass, anything that grows, and tried to get the pump area as dry as possible.

The plus was it was a great teaching moment. We got to work together as a family. And although Joshi felt terrible, we got to show him grace and love through his mistake. I love parenting moments like that.

Two floods in one week.

What's the lesson?

KJ