We can’t live without it, but for the past week, I can’t say that I’d be too unhappy to give it a shot. The evening before Wigilia preparation, several days of rain took control of our basement and my whole night: it became pouring, literally, up one of the formerly-thought-to-be-plugged termite treatment holes. At about midnight, I was shop-vac-ing sixteen gallons of water every eight minutes. The rain stopped at around one, and I finally stopped sucking up the water at around three.

And now, less than a week later, we’re in the same situation. Days of rain, and then this:

A line of storms that’s just moving northwest straight through our little state. And so I’m up at past one in the morning again, writing this (planning to back-date it for obvious reasons), waiting to see if the rain stops, wondering if my second third fourth who-knows-which attempt at patching the holes will at least hold for this deluge.

But I’m not complaining, though it sounds like it. I know it could be worse. I know others are experiencing worse — everyone on our street, in our neighborhood, is experiencing the same thing and then some. And then there are the tornadoes in Texas and the midwest. Still, chronicling and all…