Nor'easter 2007

Well, we've had quite a weekend. Ian went to his first real birthday party on Saturday, which was a beautiful, sunny spring day. It was for his good friend, Ana, who now is known by her full name, Archana, because there's another girl named Anna in the class. More on that later when I get the pictures uploaded.

Anyway, the rain started sometime early this morning and it was very, very heavy. Luckily, the winds weren't as strong as they predicted, but when I went downstairs around 2:00 to check on some laundry, I saw water coming into the basement. It seems to be seeping in through the concrete from the garage. So I pulled on my Wellies and checked the garage. There was a good 4 inches of water in the garage! My car was in the garage because we let Ian nap in the car after the party yesterday. I figured I should move it out so we could access what we needed to in the garage. Jeff and I moved things out of the basement and tried to figure out what to do. Within 30 minutes, we had about 2 inches of water throughout the basement. This was all from runoff from the rain. No rain comes into our driveway from the street, so this is all just rain that lands on the driveway and seeps in from the ground and from our gutters. Our sump pump just can't handle the volume. So Jeff decided to go buy another pump at Home Depot. He said it was a zoo at the Home Depot and he had a hard time finding what he needed. The sewers were all overflowing, so it was pretty tough. When I went back down to check on the basement around 4:30, the water had risen above the height of the coffee table and was coming up to the 3rd step on the stairs. I've never seen anything like it! Unfortunately, it meant that my Wellies and Jeff's shoes were floating in the water.

The rain died down for a while and Jeff checked about half an hour ago and the water has come down considerably, but the rain just started up again, so we'll see how it pans out tomorrow morning. So far we've received somewhere between 4 and 7 inches of rain. The latest report says there were evacuations along the shore and that New Rochelle has declared a state of emergency.

If it's not one thing, it's another. Luckily for us, Ian decided to take an almost three-hour nap. I was out helping Jeff set up the pump and by the time I came back inside, the poor guy was wailing like we'd abandoned him.

On a lighter note, when I gave Ian his bath tonight, for the first time he pointed at his you-know-what and asked me, "Zhe4 shi4 she3 me?" ("What is this?") So I said, "Shi4 Ian de ji1-ji1. Shi4 xiao3 ji1-ji1." ("It's Ian's ji-ji. It's a little one.") Ian quickly responded, "NO -- shi4 da4 de!" ("No, it's big!") Seriously, does it usually start this young???