When I was reading that last entry to Fergus, he wanted to know why I hadn't mentioned what happened to the plumbers. I guess I got so carried away talking about the flood itself, that I just forgot.
You would think that nine plumbers would be sufficient to handle a flooding moat. Yet there we were, wading through all that water in the dungeon, and not a plumber in sight. I finally sent Maggie to sniff them out (she's very good at tracking, although tight spaces can be a problem).
They're all sick in bed. Nine plumbers, and every single one of them has mumps! They look like a pack of chipmunks, with their cheeks all puffed out, and when we asked them for advice about how to drain the floodwaters, we couldn't even understand what they said because of their swollen throats.
Old Breezy (that's Breasal) was beside himself. Technically, he's the butler, but when Mom and Dad are away, he tries very hard to ensure that everything keeps running smoothly in their absence. And, of course, the only thing that has been running smoothly since the flood started is the stream of water into the dungeon.
It's not that I mind helping to move everything to a higher spot or spreading things out to dry in the Great Room. But it does make it very difficult to find time for lessons, which he finds quite perturbing. So, he's pulled out all the plans and diagrams of the drains and moat and local waterways, and is busily trying to work out the best way to deal with our soggy problem on his own.
Meanwhile, the rain has finally stopped. The flow of water into the dungeon is starting to slow, so hopefully there is an end in sight. It will be a relief, to get things back to normal. I've been wearing the only pair of galoshes I could find, which are two sizes too large for me, so every other step, my foot comes right out, and then the galosh falls over, and gets full of water, which pretty much defeats the purpose of wearing them in the first place. I've washed more socks in the past week than in the whole previous month.
Posted by thinkum at April 24, 2004 02:14 PM