Today’s Basement Special: Lego Soup

The Legos came out of hiding when the water started flowing down the window wells and onto the floor. Lego pieces made their way in the basement river downward, toward the water pump, swirling and gathering and clogging the nozzle.

Ugh! I wanted to wake my sons: “Get down here and pick up these Legos right now!”

Probably not the best idea at 3 a.m. So, while the children slept, Mike and I took turns fishing Lego pieces out of the steady stream, throwing them — bam — into the wall.

We were getting a little testy, it being 3 a.m. and all.

That old pump, besides being really slow, screamed and throbbed like a jet plane about to take off. Sitting right next to it all night long, legs knee deep in soaked socks, arms reaching into freezing cold water, my mind began to wander. I couldn’t talk; the pump’s too loud. I couldn’t take a cookie break. I couldn’t change positions. I just kept fishing and praying the rain would stop, daydreaming about, well, swirly oily Lego soup.

After a while, the old pump started to whine and screech and smell bad. We were certain we’d burn out the motor in the old one by the time the northeaster had squeezed its last drop. So at 5:30, Mike went out to join the lines of people at Home Depot waiting for new water pumps. He called me from the store. Nothing. He was going to drive around, see if any other stores might have one.

Lowe’s: nothing.

Sears: closed.

Boro Hardware: nada.

So he came back to the basement (a k a Julie’s photo studio complete with ruined backdrops) and slammed more Legos against the wall. It’s amazing how many stray Lego pieces were pitched, and yet, I never once “saw” something resembling a spaceship or a robot or a frontier cabin.

Suddenly, a light bulb flashed in Mike’s head. This revelation rather made up for the gingko incident.

“SWIMMING POOL STORES!” Mike said, and he was off to get our water pump.

Voila! No lines. Water pumps in stock, only minor price gouging. Quiet, too.

Still, the new pump doesn’t have a taste for Lego soup any more than the old pump did.

“Bradley! Gregory!” (grrrrrrr) “WAKE UP!” You’ve got some fishing to do.