And now...

I'd like to present another case of why I think I may be one of the dumbest people in St. Louis right now.

So a month or two ago, a bunch of the caulking gave way in one of the basement windows during a storm, and I ended up with a soggy carpet. Frequent readers of this site may remember my referring to it. I believe my exact words were something to the effect of "soggy basement," or something like that. Anyways, with the help of mother and Mike, I was able to repair the damage, as best I could (really, I just need new windows).

Jump to maybe sometime in mid-November when I finally got all the leaves taken care of in the backyard. I got the yard and patio done, but never finished the driveway. So, they just sort of sat around and piled up for the past month and a half or so.

Jump to last night/this morning, when we get a hefty storm. I wake up, and, as usual, the basement is leaking a bit, which I expected. I noticed there was some leakage around the recently repaired window. So, I assumed I had simply missed a few spots. I proceed to lay down some old rags, and go about getting ready for church. At some point, I notice it seems to be getting worse, and after awhile, it gets so bad that water is puddling up to some extent on the already soaked towels.

Fun.

So, I figure I'd better go out and see what the deal is.

Now, to fully appreciate what I saw, recall the scene in Jaws, when Roy Scheider first sees the shark, and slowly walks back into the cabin, staring intently at the water (as only Spielberg can do), and says the greatest movie line ever: "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

So, here I am, looking at my driveway, and, to my horror, find that the leaves are acting as a dam, and I have at least an inch of water puddled up in my driveway (really, it was closer to two, i think). And of course, all of this water is poised to spill into my basement if I don't lose it.

So, I grab a snow shovel and proceed to start moving leaves. And thankfully, the dam burst, the water receeded, and the basement survived.

Of course, all this could have been avoided had I simply cleared the leaves out a month ago.

le sigh.

Alas, Sarah may not want to have anything to do with me after the extreme combo of the Leaf Dam and Gas Cap incidents. I wouldn't blame her. I'll probably end up flooding her bathroom or something like that.