New fence? Please...

While I should have been installing my new fence this weekend with the help of my great friends and family, I was doing this, instead:

Apparently, this is record rainfall for Chicago. It's the remnants of the Pacific storm Lowell (sp?) I guess. And the remnants of Ike are supposed to come perilously close to Chicago tomorrow and tomorrow night. The water is so high in the backyard, it's going into the basement now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbMgE3NCKm8

Now, so long as that drain doesn't back up or the water doesn't come in any faster, we should be OK. I did have to get out on the roof, briefly, outside our bedroom window, however, to bend the downspout off, as the morons who originally installed it put the elbow at the bottom on backward (bottom portion outside the top portion), so the water was shooting out the seam and creating a lake in between the houses. We had some serious seepage into the room under the front porch because of it, and that seeped into the family room, onto the carpet. I was going to tear that carpet out anyway; now I'll have to do it much earlier than anticipated.

Now, I know that, obviously, what I'm currently dealing with is minimal compared to the folks in Iowa earlier this year and the folks along the Gulf Coast and whatnot, and in Texas. But, even this "much" water is a big deal here. And it's a big deal to me too, especially since I'm going to finish that family room at some point. In a sense, it's making me rethink the next steps.

Hopefully the rain subsides enough to let some of this water soak in and go away, and stop pouring into my basement!