Water always wins.

[nonelvis]

We're having a slight water event here in the Boston area. Like, about eight inches of rain, apparently, which would certainly explain the inch of water that was in our basement last night, and the two inches there this morning. jagpatel found shop-vacs on sale a few years ago and bought us one; good thing, too, because I filled it at least fifty times this morning. That's not an exaggeration; I was in the basement for an hour and a half, and though I lost count of the bucketfuls somewhere around #38, at a rate of roughly 1.75-2 minutes to fill and drain ten gallons of water, you get fifty buckets.

Huh. The interwebs tell me that's literally more than one ton two tons of water. Go shop-vac!

The basement is busy replenishing its water supply right now, so I figure in another hour or so I'll go back downstairs in a scruffy t-shirt, jeans rolled up to my knees, and my LL Bean boots (I am one sexy beast today, let me tell you), and will vacuum more of this stuff out of the house. Ah, the joys of homeownership.

In other news, in case you are one of the few people who doesn't read XKCD regularly, today's is perfect. (And the rollover text is excellent, as usual.)

Comments

[peebles.livejournal.com]

I soooooo thought of you when I saw that this morning.

[nonelvis]

What I want to know is, who is this "Cambridge Women's Pornography Cooperative" responsible for Porn for Women? Because no Cambridge, MA-based women I've ever met would consider shots of guys vacuuming "porn."

[papilio-luna.livejournal.com]

A true testament to what is relevant to the interests of my flist: this is now the fourth time this comic has been posted by someone on it today.

*thumbsup*

[nonelvis]

I am thinking of framing a copy for my office.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Great truths *must* be widely disseminated.

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR, I got a Porn For Women calendar for Christmas this past year from my aunt. Everyone else got a kick out of it, but I'm like... WAIT, WHERE'S THE SEX? IT LIIIIIIIIIIIES.

It's been raining crazy here, too, though I managed to sneak out yesterday to have an X-Files day with bonus Lost elements.

[nonelvis]

Quite honestly, I think pretty much every woman I know, with the possible exception of my mother, would have the same reaction you did to that calendar. Even my mother-in-law would be saying, "Wait, where are the naked pix of George Clooney?".

[chloris67.livejournal.com]

I was reading friends of friends and I am hoping like mad that we are not vacuuming out our cellar later today. Last time we had a rain storm like this my husband cracked from the strain of keeping ahead of the flood - many, many fillings of the shop vacs - and put in a sump pump. (It took a year for it to get finished and covered properly but it worked right from the beginning.) It has to stop raining soon, right? Right?

[nonelvis]

The rain is supposed to stop this evening, so if we vacuum every couple of hours, hopefully we'll stay on top of things. I hope your sump pump can keep up with this!

I keep telling myself it could be worse: a friend heard parts of his chimney flying off in the wind Saturday night, and water is now coming in through his roof.

[gritsinmisery.livejournal.com]

When this cartoon popped up on my feed last night, I was very much in agreement.

The Mississippi and Missouri are a foot above flood stage already, and the snowcaps have not yet started to melt. Looks like we're in for another one of those springs. *wishes she owned stock in a sand company*

[nonelvis]

Our basement only floods when there's really severe rain, so in the 10 years we've had this house, on average, it's flooded less than once a year (and usually not nearly this bad, a moppable amount). But man, I'm wishing for some sandbags now, too.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

At least you don't have an ominous damp on the ceiling in your bedroom where it meets the exposed brick, which also has a bit of ominous damp. I'm steeling myself to climb up on the roof to see what's what. I'm hoping it's just a blocked drain (which will cause water to infiltrate the tightest roof) and not, you know, a roof problem.

Do you have a dehumidifier? They're not to expensive and do a really good job of drying things out after you get rid of the standing water.

[nonelvis]

Eeek. No, we don't have that. Nor do we have water nearly up to the roof of our car, the way some other Boston-area resident apparently does. (I saw that shot on the news today.)

We don't have a dehumidifier, and picking one up this week sounds like an excellent idea. Thanks for the suggestion!

[iainpj.livejournal.com]

Huh. Apparently this Cambridge group has an entire product line. (The URL for their website is eyeroll-worthy all by itself. But I digress. Already.) The interesting thing about their product line is that, on the covers anyway, every single one of them but one features a fully dressed man. (Mind, the one that has an at least partially unclad man would have me saying, "Yes! More of him, please! ... No, really, MORE of him. The lower parts. The entire body. Really." But then, I am not a woman; clearly, I cannot know what women like in their porn.)

Sorry to hear you're having such problems with the Great Nor'easter of '10. The weather reports I've been seeing indicate that it's moving veeerrrrry slooooooowly, so it may be around for a bit.

[nonelvis]

Our mission is to recover the term "pornography" from the gold-chained, hairy-chested, leisure-suit-wearing, mouth-breathing knuckleheads, and reclaim it for the rest of us.

Funny, the joke CWPC is trying to make with these products is pretty much exactly the kind of dumbass joke mouth-breathing knuckleheads make about female porn. I think CWPC may be missing the point here.

[platypus]

RECLAIM IT FOR THE REST OF US. By reinforcing the idea that women don't like icky porn with naked people and sex.

People on the xkcd forums keep annoying me by saying that the comic doesn't get the point, which is that the whole "porn for women" thing is a joke. But it's a joke that depends on all the Women Are So Very Different From Men, Isn't It Hilarious stuff that I hate.

[alphabetically.livejournal.com]

It just follows logically, don't you see, because women's bodies are NICE to look at but men's bodies are GUH-ROSS.

*headdesk*

[nonelvis]

I find it increasingly hard to believe any women are actually involved in the CWPC.

[kalleah.livejournal.com]

I am amused by how many people posted this. Hee. Hope the water mess is resolved soon.

[nonelvis]

I figure we've removed about 1,000 gallons of water so far, although we've been lucky in that it's never been more than about 2" deep. The rain is really slowing down, though, so hopefully there will just be one last big cleanup tomorrow.

[mmancuso.livejournal.com]

A dressed man pretending to be a naked man pretending to be porn? They'll know he's a phony.

[nonelvis]

♥ ♥ ♥

[editrx.livejournal.com]

I thank ghu every day for our sump pump in the basement of our place in NH.

And I must say, even for XKCD, that particular cartoon rocks.

[nonelvis]

We don't flood often or severely enough to have put in a sump pump, but after surviving this, I'm definitely giving it some thought.