This is a post about water. It's everywhere in Pittsburgh. Too much of it. The air lately has been so full of water I honestly feel that I can see it, that if I breathe out heavily enough I'll make a space for myself in the wet haze.
Mid-week, the dew point reached 75 with over 65% humidity. While I don't have a great understanding of meteorology, I take this to mean that the vast majority of the air was water. It's been wreaking havoc on my sinuses as rugby practice gets going and crew practice builds in intensity. This week, when I got splashed with river water I honestly didn't even feel it, and it wasn't because we were just rowing too fast to notice.
What surprises me most about the moisture (and the torrential downpours that do nothing to relieve the humidity) is my new thought process since becoming a homeowner. As I stand in the rain, a little bit of stinging rain, as Forrest Gump would say, I think briefly of my misery and then dwell on the condition of the basement. Have we taken on water again? Will one box of baking soda be enough to fight off the mildew smell??
When I encounter strangers, I find myself engaging in the small talk I so greatly despise. Hey Jim, how about this weather? Did you get any water in your basement??? Only I'm not really saying these things as a substitute for real interaction. I really care about people's basements. I really want to hear what other Pittsburghians do to dry those suckers out.
Yesterday, it rained so much that rugby practice was canceled. For the non-ruggers among the seven readers out there, this is a big deal. Rugby is never canceled. Ever. As I had no power due to the electrical storm, I didn't receive the message and drove through a small landslide only to discover myself alone among a field of soggy homeless men.
Corey and I drove instead to a Thai restaurant with partial power to eat dinner by the light of a huge bug zapper and worried more about the house. Have our windows been properly sealed against moisture? Should we have a roofer come check the chimney flashing? Ignoring our enormous pit stains and lower-back-sweat puddles is a true sign that something has changed in me. I have replaced an opportunity for incessant whining with genuine concerns, something concrete to worry about. The tides of these swollen rivers have turned.
After years of nomadic temporary employment, advanced degrees, and chocolate ice cream, a rugger with a love of knitting and a cyclist with no domestic skills signed a Ketubah and bought a house in Pittsburgh.
3 comments:
Sorry Katy...it just would have been unreasonably dangerous to train. It killed me calling off training. Boo. I am also sorry you didn't get the message. My email to the team included: "PLEASE PASS THE WORD via text/cell phone for people that may not have access to email due to power outages." Obviously that didn't do a lot of good. My apologies.
I feel your pain....We had many sleepless nights worrying about basement flooding. Over the years I did however find many things that can be done to control the water, mold, and the smell. I'll share them with you. That's why we now live in a house with NO basement.....never again. I sleep great every rainy night.
My parents house has a french drain. Its like a little ditch around the basement with a sump pump in one corner. They're almost on top of the hill, and I can't remember it ever turning on. I think the previous owner was paranoid and had it installed because the houses by the creek (two-three on either side) get water in their basements a lot (my parents are two-three houses away from these).
Might be worth looking into.
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