The Flood

Yesterday was a Monday for sure. We woke up to a dreary, rainy morning. It was dark out. So dark that the boys asked if it was still night time. It rained all day long. ALL day long. Heavy rain.
At about 4:00 yesterday afternoon I ran down to the basement to put a few things away in my sewing space. While down there I noticed that the boys play area was a bit of a mess, so I went over to clean it up....and stepped in water. Everywhere on that side of the basement, water.
Initially it didn't seem so bad. I mean, everything was soaked, and I had to throw a few things away, but most of it seemed salvageable. I called my Dad and he immediately came over to help (my parents own the house we live in). He discovered that the storage closet was also flooded, and that the water was still coming in from under the steps, into the closet, and out to the rest of the basement. A few more things had to be thrown away, but almost everything in the closet was in big, plastic bins (thankfully). We vacuumed up water with the Shop Vac for so long that the engine burned up, and filled the basement with smoke. It would have been comical if it hadn't been 11:00 at night.
For the next hour and a half we mopped, cleaned, threw stuff away, and mopped some more. And that's when I discovered it. Some water had leaked in on the other side of the basement, into my sewing area, right where I kept all of my ready made product. It's ruined. Not all of it, but most of it. It made me sick to my stomach, and I might have said a curse word or two. I was able to salvage a bag of fabric that had gotten wet, but it seems that a small tag, or something, had made it's way into the box of product, and red ink bled all over when it got wet.
It's my own fault, really. I should have kept my product in plastic bins instead of baskets and boxes. It just never occurred to me that it might flood, you know?
I was chatting with my friend Jacqui soon after my discovery and I told her that I kept telling myself it was just stuff. Things are replaceable, and none of it was "necessary" anyway. It's heartbreaking to lose all of that hard work, and the money that went into it. But, it's just things. It could have been worse. Much worse. But it wasn't, and for that I will be thankful, and I will continue to tell myself that as we clean up today and throw more stuff away. It's just stuff.

*All of the damaged items have been removed from my shop. The few things that were okay are still listed, and have been put on major sale. I have wanted to start fresh for a long time now. This is a good excuse to do that. *