My Friend Ior

"Why does this always happen to me?" The lament of the droopy eyed hapless donkey that has a grey cloud over his head all the time.

I have recently named a good friend of mine IOR.

Middle of may Jim gets a panicked phone call; "my basement is flooded and I need help".

Jim closes books (was studying up for upcoming job interview) and heads outside where buddy IOR is waiting in truck, we tear out and head to pick up Shop vacs, Iors Brother-in-law obliges, then it's on to Beer Store for mandatory case of OV. Now we're set!

Walk into basement... Squish! Basement is wet.

Begin taking out furnishing and other items. I want to cry for them. Ior grins and makes reference to obvious indoor swimming pool joke. I smirk, not wanting to laugh.

A quick side note about Ior, everything that involves friends and disaster, involves a few beer a few laughs and a few breaks for composure sake.

We drain about two 20 gal tanks of water from shopvac. This calls for a quick dip in the frigid, but refreshing OUTDOOR POOL.

A few quick wobbly pops and we're back at it. Carpet needs to be removed and put outside where a torrential downpour has evolved. This could spell disaster for Mr. Shopvac! We labor on.

At this point Ior's wife is advised there may be no insurance to cover this. Ior's wife is not happy.

Carpet and underlay is rolled up in center of floor. Carpet is 30 feet by 20 feet and weighs 2 tons. If you know Jim you know he's gonna try it (especially when he gots the fuel fer his mule in him). I take the front and Ior (quite a powerful fellow himself and just as determined) brings up the rear. I grunt and start walking not looking back and Ior pushes, we are movin up the stairs.

I get my end well over the top and need to rest. I set my end down and look back for the first time. Ior is covered in Dirty rug water up to his shoulders. It seems that when a soaked rolled carpet is placed on an angle the water flows freely to the lowest point. Ior grins and says; "ooh my indoor Pool has a waterfall". Ior had been pushing with his shoulders on the end of the carpet. Ior is wet and dirty, but still smiling. Rain has let up, for now. We drag the carpet onto the driveway to drain, Jim is going to use this carpet in his Garage-den (A.K.A. Doghouse).

This latest effort calls for a, you guessed it, break. We trudge around evaluating the situation. Slam back another couple and keep on going. All flooring is removed, Ior's Wife on hands and knees trying to remove "god damned peel and stick flooring", with a flat screwdriver. Jim credits Ior's wife with a great deal of patience. And lends a hand.

By the end of the day, carpet and flooring is removed 24 Beer have vanished and floor is as dry as it can get for now. The rain starts to fall again, nothing further came of it though. Insurance ended up replacing all the damaged items and rebuilt the basement.

This may seem like a pretty ordinary thing to anyone who has been involved in a basement flood. The trick to this one is;

Right around Mid-December Ior's wife comes home to find that she now has a floating carpet in her basement. Yes, the one that was just replaced. The walls are soaked and this time, there are some victimized appliances. ie, computer power tools, TV's etc... Here we go again.

The worst part of this whole thing is that I have only known Ior and family for a year. I have been told stories of dishwasher leaking and ruining entire kitchen and most of upstairs, as well as basement ceiling.

I will track the progress of Ior's misfortunes and report them directly.