Kim Wilbanks

The mind of a person plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.  Proverbs 10:9 NASB

Catching Up From A Busy Month

I had my day all planned out and it was going to be perfect. Nothing was scheduled until 3:00 so I had all day to write and get caught up on things. After all, it had been a very hectic month and I was looking forward to a chance to be still and catch my breath.

February was filled with mostly good things. We started out with a trip to Nashville to see our grandson and spend time with all our kids. When we returned home, I attended a women’s event to kick off Spring and visited with friends. In between that and a field trip to Cross Creek, Florida, and a Bluegrass concert, we had to make a trip back to Nashville for a somber occasion — the memorial service for my son-in-law’s father. A few days later, favorite cousins came down for an overnight visit after their family trip to Peppa Pig Theme Park. I had to prep for an endoscopy and colonoscopy as soon as they left. Whew! That is a lot of activity for a month that’s already shorter than all the others.

So last Tuesday night, when I went to bed, I expected to awaken early to begin my highly anticipated productive day.

A Rude Awakening

I woke up a couple of hours earlier than I wanted to so I walked to the bathroom to get some water, then went back to bed. As I was walking back to bed I remembered thinking that my husband’s CPAP machine sounded funny but I dismissed the thought, climbed back into my comfy bed, and pulled the covers up to my chin.

Two hours later, I heard my husband say, “We’ve got a problem.”

I swung my feet off the bed and instead of feeling soft carpeting I felt something very wet and very squishy. What in the world? Not only that, there was the sound of gushing water coming from the vicinity of my closet (which used to be our bathroom when we first moved into our house). A water pipe had burst behind the closet wall and our bedroom floor was flooded. Not only was our bedroom floor flooded but the water had seeped into the two rooms that are adjacent to our closets, my craft room, and my study. Both of these rooms have hard wood floors.

That will wake you up in a hurry.

What Happens Next?

After the shock of waking up to a saturated bedroom, we gathered our bearings and called a neighbor for some advice. First order of business — shut the water off to the house. (I now know that the valve to do that is under the metal plate right behind the mailbox.) No water meant no using the bathroom, no showers, and no coffee.

Thankfully, my mother lives one street over, and she has seven bathrooms. What a blessing! My husband had morning meetings so he headed over to her house to take a shower and get ready. In the meantime, I pulled all of the wet, soggy stuff from our closets into our bathroom. One of the more interesting results of the flood is that any article of clothing that was touching the floor had a watermark about six inches up. Don’t worry, the water wasn’t six inches deep. The cropped pants and tee shirts touching the floor soaked up the moisture kind of like when you put a stalk of celery in colored water.  When I finished that, I went to my mom’s house to clean up and more importantly, get a cup of coffee.

Right after lunch, the restoration service came and started the drying-out process. They were there for about five hours. They left about a dozen heavy-duty fans running to continue the process. The leak detectors arrived and found the source of the leak and my husband arranged for the plumber to come and fix the problem in a few days.

Day two of the flood found the restoration folks pulling up the water-damaged wood flooring and my husband and I escaping to the beach. Honestly, that is probably what is keeping me stress-free at this point. It’s easy to forget about ruined floors when gazing at the Gulf of Mexico.

Some observations about the flood of February 2023

• It could have been so much worse. As much as my husband and I travel, it could have happened while we were out of town and the results could have been disastrous.
• We both need to purge our closets. We have way too much stuff.
• I save ridiculous things. I’ve been holding on to three or four shoeboxes, like the really cute one from Rifle Paper Company. The flood has given me permission to throw them away.
• My less inspiring quality of procrastination cost me. I’ve had a bag of clothes in my closet I’ve been meaning to donate for months. Instead, I got to wash and dry said bag of clothes to get them ready to donate again.
• It’s nice having family close by. We’re able to stay with my mom until we get our water back on.
• Friends have generously offered us a place to stay as well. 
• While this has been an inconvenience and not part of our plan, it really isn’t the worst thing that could have happened to us. 

Who knows? Maybe I’ll get new floors out of the ordeal. Or maybe I’ll just move to the beach.

How about you? Do you have a water disaster story? I’ve already heard a couple as I’ve shared my story with friends. I’d love to hear yours, especially if it has a happy ending.