I Will Never Look at Water the Same Way Again

Yesterday was one of those days that just sucks ass. There is no eloquent way to describe the shittiness of my Tuesday.

3am - Early Morning Storms

Kaeli came into my room, and asked to sleep in my bed because she was scared by the thunderstorm. Until she came in, I didn't even know there was a storm. It turned out to be a really bad one. The thunder was so loud, and the lightening was so bright that I couldn't fall back asleep. There was hail hitting my windows so hard that I was sure they were going to break. It was insane. I just sat there watching the ridiculous amount of rain. I have never seen so much rain in my life.

6am - Happy Ignorance of the Day Ahead

It was still raining so hard. I turned on the TV to check out the morning news. OMG. There was flooding EVERYWHERE. And, of course, my side of town was hit really badly. Kaeli's school was delayed 2 hours, the park and ride wasn't running routes, the power went out briefly, and the weatherman was very adamant that if you didn't absolutely have to be anywhere then stay home. I watched the pandemonium for a while, then emailed my boss to let him know that I was going to wait out the storm, and I would be into work after I dropped Kaeli off at school. Then I smiled because I was going to get to sleep in on a weekday. I blissfully climbed back into bed.

8am - The Shit Storm Begins

I get a text from my friend saying that the powers that be decided to cancel school all together. I realize that I'm going to have to call work and tell them I'm not coming in, but I quickly find out that staying home with Kaeli is the least of my worries. My alarm goes off, my phone rings, and someone is knocking on my door all at the same time. I rise from my slumber to my friend calling and my neighbor knocking to tell me the same news.

My car is full of water.

As it turns out, pretty much every car on my street is full of water. Neighbors are informing other neighbors, and in a matter of minutes the parking lot is full of people trying desperately to dry out their cars. The water has receded, so the street isn't flooded anymore, but the damage has been done.

My friends and I spent about two hours trying to soak up as much water as possible, but it really didn't help. I gave up, dirty and exhausted.

Since Rob is truly the best boyfriend on the planet, he left work and drove all the way down here to help me. He spent hours shop-vacing (is that even a word) my car. It didn't really do a lot of good though. There is SO MUCH water. I know he knew that his efforts were futile. He just did it to make me feel better, and try to help me out.

My car still runs. I'm not sure it's such a great thing to be driving it around, but at this point I just don't care. It was still wet this morning. Don't even get me started on the smell. So seriously disgusting.

I called my insurance to make a claim yesterday, but so did everyone in Houston. I have an appointment on Friday with the insurance adjuster. I've never done anything like this before. The only accident I've ever been in was a fender bender when I was 16, and my mom handled everything. In all honesty, I have no clue what the heck is going on.

At first, I just figured they would take a look at it, and decide to take out the carpets and re-upholster everything. Then, I got to work. According to my coworkers, water is a car's kryptonite. They are all telling me to hope it gets totalled because there is no coming back from that kind of water damage. I'm still making payments on my poor little car. I only have about a year left. It scares the crap out of me that it will get totalled, but the insurance company won't value it for enough to pay off the car and have a little left over for a down payment on another one. I'm also scared that the car won't get totalled, but it will never be worth anything ever again because of all the water damage. Apparently, no one wants a car that has ever been in a flood.

I've realized that I do not handle stress well. I have this tendency to just shut down and avoid everything at all costs when things get to be too much.

I'm also annoyed with myself because I've always thought of myself as an independent chick, but the first thing I did was call my boyfriend and freak out!

I know it could be so much worse (one story in the news is particularly awful), but right now, it feels like a lot. I just hope and pray that this all goes smoothly and quickly.

And now for your viewing pleasure, a few hastily taken pictures:

This picture doesn't really show anything. I just think my poor car looks sad and pathetic.

This is inside the trunk. We pulled up all of the mats, and this is my spare tire. Please notice the POOL of dirty brown water surrounding the tire. The tire was submerged in gross rain water and floating trunk trash.

Also notice the dirty water line. It might be tough to see, but, apparently, this is how high the water came up to my car.

I can say, with a large amount of confidence, that I will never be able to enjoy a thunderstorm ever again. No longer will I find snuggling under the blankets while sleeping or reading comforting and cozy.