The Dark and Light of Easter

Easter is my favorite holiday. When we were in Tucson, we'd always throw a big bash and have about 20 people over. Egg hunts, pinatas, bloody marys & mimosas... everyone would get dressed up and bring a side dish. I loved it. It meant springtime.

This was my first year without the Easter celebration.

The dark of it came when we woke up to find our basement flooded under a small (but extensive) amount of water. Actually, we found the problem the night before. Ken was up at 5 AM tearing out sheet rock, digging trenches and locating the problem to be a clogged leader that empties into our dry well that's buried in our yard (a dry well is a giant perforated cylinder filled with gravel into which our gutters drain. it being clogged means the water backed up and sopped the ground next to the house -- forcing water into the house via hydrostatic pressure). When I woke up, I saw Ken out in the pouring rain with a shovel -- two giant holes in the middle of the yard in his wake. He found the buried dry well, unclogged the debris from the pipe and watched the massive amount of water pour into the dry well. Success. He hung plastic sheets to the side of the house to prevent more water from accumulating in the soil next to the house. We went to Home Depot and picked up a wet/dry shop vac to suck up all the water (note: a mop and ringing-out bucket costs the same amount as a wet/dry vac -- crazy). Ken said he aspirated about 90 gallons of water from our basement (10 trips at 9 gallons a piece). We've had the fans on downstairs ever since. It's supposed to rain for the next couple days, so it's a good thing he fixed it when he did.

By the time Kristen and the crowd at Jana & Rob's called, we were filthy and cold. Very far from the warm weather & sundresses in Tucson. We hadn't even had breakfast yet. Not a mimosa in sight. It was a very different Easter. However, we were in the middle of replacing our front porch light with the glass star we bought in Mexico. We wished them all well while our arms burned from holding up the star and attaching the wires. Good friends and our light of Easter.

Tonight we're going to the store to stock up on plastic eggs and easter goodies on sale, in hopes that next year's Easter will be filled with more of the light and less of the dark.

Hope you can make it.