dashing through the raindrops....

 Yesterday we had some fairly heavy rain here in Allen County and my spouse and I grumbled a little about dashing through the rain, sometimes heavy, to get to our morning appointments.  It wasn't a cold rain (it's summertime after all) and it did ease up after a while.  Our clothing quickly dried when we got into the buildings we were going to, so, at most, the rain was a minor inconvenience.  

Today, when I heard from my west coast brother, I realized how lucky we are.  He was rejoicing because it was raining in his area of Washington state for the first time in two months.   They have been suffering the effects of wild fires, not threatening their home, but close enough to them to make the air hard to breathe.  He told me that today's rain cleared the air, at least temporarily.  However some fires are still burning and won't be put out until it snows.

According to the weather report, our local area will be having rain again this Friday and Saturday.  I know that is the beginning of the long Labor Day weekend and you may have outdoor plans.  But remember, if you have to move the party indoors, it's still so much better than wild fires.

The best laid plans...

 Today started out quite pleasantly.  My spouse and I each had an appointment with a doctor, but no shots or pain involved.  After those appointments we went to brunch at Joanna's, very tasty, then on to Schumachers produce farm to buy tomatoes, potatoes, and corn on the cob. 

 After which we proceeded home, looking forward to a relaxing afternoon.  We might even work on our current jigsaw puzzle for a little while. 

Unfortunately, although it was necessary, soon after we got home, I flushed the toilet in our upstairs hall bathroom.  We did not know, until that flush, that the ring seal under that toilet had become old and brittle and had been leaking slowly for some time.  The reason we didn't notice this was because the leaking water was trickling down into a book case in the family room.  If it had been leaking through a ceiling onto the floor we would have seen it long ago, but, as it was, it just leaked quietly into a bookcase to be absorbed by books, albums and other paper materials.  And there was no bad smell.

Today however my spouse just happened to hear a soft little dripping sound as he sat down to relax for a bit in our family room recliner, and looked to see water dripping down into the bookcase.  He knew, by the position, that it had to be coming from a toilet and immediately called a plumber, who came right away with his assistant.  They figured out the problem and fixed the leak quickly, leaving us to clean up a mess that we had never known existed.  Happily, all of the damage was limited to one set of shelves, floor to ceiling and about five feet wide.  

Needless to say that size book case holds a lot of stuff.  We found picture albums, wedding albums, books of all sorts, including an old hymnal, a family Bible (happily very little damage), plastic cases of CDs and DVDs, (we're not great about throwing things away) and lots of loose paper stuff.  Much of what we found was moldy and had to be discarded.  Just so you can appreciate how serious it was, my wonder spouse even had to throw away his Boy Scout book of knots.  

It was not the relaxing afternoon we had intended but it is good to know that it's all clean and taken care of, except for all the 'must save' pictures drying out on towels on our dining room table.  These include the pictures of my first wedding and many baby pictures of my spouse's children and grands.  The albums were ruined but we were able to save most of the pictures.  I'm sure we can find new albums at Michaels or on Amazon.  

So, one more project, but that one we will do lovingly.