Bree and her friend Mack decide that, if they were to ever form a band, they could call it “Mac and Cheese”.
Jan: I get the Mac part, but why Cheese?
Bree: You know… Brie?
We’re getting ready to drive Liya to the train station for her return trip to Vancouver — and discover that a large puddle is growing in our driveway and coming into the garage. Our Magnolia tree is up to its usual tricks blocking our outgoing sewer pipe that runs underneath it.
After many years of trouble with that tree (which cannot be removed due to city regulations), we have in place a number of defenses to prevent a pipe blockage from flooding our basement. We have a water sensor which goes off just as we’re walking into the garage. We have a sump pump on hand that we bought after the last blockage. And we have the number of the company to call to deal with exactly this problem.
Since this is the first time we’re using the sump pump, it takes a few minutes to set it up. We finally get it hooked up and placed inside the trough below some grates in our driveway, from where the pump happily begins pumping water out into the street.
There’s a bit of comedy when we notice that the street end of the garden hose still has a sprinkler attachment on it — so sewer-contaminated graywater is now spraying into the air. It takes some doing to get the sprinkler attachment off without getting showered in graywater.
A repair crew eventually confirms and clears a blockage in the pipe.