WINDING DOWN... Summer (Part 140l)

WINDING DOWN... Summer (part 140l)

After another change of clothing I decided to take a break and sat down in my recliner. Elle and the girls were in the dining room going through her materials for the 4 H club that she’d agreed to be co-leader along with Ginger. Between the two they had seven female children so it was a natural for them to be in charge. It was also perfect for me as they were busy and it gave me a chance to relax. I’d been on my feet and busy since about 6:30am and it was now early afternoon. I pushed back and shut my eyes. With nothing ‘pressing’, it allowed me to put some random thoughts I’d been collecting about Barbara. Having just seen what had appeared to be a pee stain on her nightie I didn’t have to dig too deep into my previous observations about her.

The facts, as I knew them, were that she wore Lollipop cotton panties with an extra panel across the back and there had always been more of those type panties on the wash line than the nylon panties I was positive belonged to her sister each time I’d seen them. I was still puzzled by the double panel on the cotton ones but had an idea on how to get information on them. Now, putting the stain into the equation I wondered if she didn’t suffer from enuresis (bedwetting). With all of Elle’s incontinence problems I’d learned a fair amount about different types of female urinary problems. I’d learned about Spina Bifida from Sandy and about pelvic prolapse from the problems experienced by Ginger. But bedwetting as a stand alone problem for someone as old as Barbara was a bit new. I knew some children, boys and girls, experienced it but then grew out of it. If that was her problem I wondered what might’ve been the cause and what could be done about it. The one good thing about her problem was it wasn’t a condition that was a potential embarrassment for her each and every day.

I was just about asleep when the phone rang. It was my father giving me an update on the tide situation. It was receding and was now just below his dock. However, according to the clock, it was now low tide and due to start rising. That meant the tide would be rising from a point much higher than a normal high tide. He told me the wind was continuing to blow between 20 and 25 miles per hour and still out of the East. To put it simply, the strong wind was keeping the water in the bay and the next high tide would be even higher than in the morning. Not good!

Looking out the window I could see that it was still raining but not nearly as hard. In the back of my mind I knew I’d have to go pump out “B’s“ boat before dark and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I’d been wet enough. I also knew that I had to do something about getting a bigger pump. The pump ”B“ had in his boat was clearly inadequate and it annoyed me. He worked for a boating supply company and could buy all the supplies he needed at cost. There was no way I was going to use his pump again so decided to go down to the hardware store and buy a decent one just to save my arm. When I told Elle where I was going she jumped up and handed me a list of things she needed from the grocery store. Among the things that I hated to do was to grocery shop by myself. I let her know that but her retort was ”If you want to eat supper...“

My first stop was the hardware store. Sandy was there along with the owner, Ray, who I knew fairly well. The store was pretty much deserted which was to be expected with the weather as bad as it was. They were talking about a problem at Sandy’s house. It, along with my friends, Bob and Phyl, was located on and backed up to what we all knew and called the Inlet ( on the property that Elle and I used to go to to ‘park’ when we were teens). This was the first time they’d experienced such high tides. Their homes had been built with basements and the water was now seeping in. Sandy’s husband, Johnnie, only had to work a half day at school and was hope trying to cope with it. Sandy wanted to go home to help him and Ray had told her it was OK to leave. But, there was no way for him to leave what he was doing to come and get her. I remember her looking at me with what I’d call ‘doe eyes’ and kind of whispering ‘”Would you take me home?”

Of course I said I would and after picking out the pump I wanted we headed for her house. I wanted to see how Johnnie was handling the situation so went inside with Sandy. We headed for the basement and as soon as she opened the door I could see water on the floor. My immediate reaction was to be thankful that my house was located on a hill. Johnnie had two electric pumps going and was carrying a pail full of water towards the outside cellar stairs. He saw me and heaved a big sigh. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I could see he was standing in water up to his ankles. The pumps were barely able to keep up with the incoming water but couldn’t make any headway on reducing the level. He pointed to the oil burner and I could see there was only about 6 inches before the water reached it. The problem was two fold. One source was from the walls where I could see rivulets of water. The other was from the built in sump area and neither could be stopped. I looked around and saw a plastic bucket floating over in the corner behind the burner. I took off my shoes and headed for it. But, as I did I also saw some panties hanging from a line strung between the floor beams. I went over to pick it up and as I did I saw Johnnie headed up the steps to the outside. When I got to the bucket I was standing inches away from the panties and I could readily see that three of them were the ‘dribble panties’ that Elle and I’d made for her. It appeared the crotches of each were stained even more than Elle’s ‘dribble panties’. Then I saw a couple of pair of plastic panties hanging there as well. It made me wonder if her problem wasn’t getting worse.

I ended up helping to bail out the cellar for about a half hour. When we got the water down to a point where we weren't getting much into the pails I told him about having to go get the rainwater out of "B's" boat and headed out. Johnnie remained in the basement and when I got upstairs Sandy was there with a towel to dry my feet. But that wasn't all. After handing it to me she got on her tip toes and planted a kiss on my cheek. I certainly wasn't expecting that but it was appreciated.

To be continued...