When I was a child, I loved building forts. My dad could make them, in feats of engineering know-how, out of one afghan (we were in Canada, and it was cold), and the cushions of our sofa. With one small cushion from the arm of the sofa, he created a sliding door that could give us access without knocking the entire fort down. My mom could “never” figure out where we were. Haha.

I never inherited the gene for superior fort building. To this day, although I can eyeball a space and tell you which piece of furniture will fit there (without a measuring tape, so I’m proud of this), I cannot figure out how to drape blankets over cushions to make the coolest fort ever.

Yesterday, the desert in Southern California was hit with a storm that came from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Norbert. We knew it was coming. We were ready for flash floods.

Guess what we weren’t ready for at all?

Our house flooding.

Yep, the garden room built onto the back of the master bedroom was taking on water. Lara was at work, while I was getting ready to run on the treadmill. I thought it was too muggy to run en plein air. Haha. So, here comes water under the wall near my treadmill. My workout consisted of moving a book case, two desks, and the treadmill. That’s not the way I like to use my treadmill for a workout, but that’s life. I called Lara to give her the update, laughing hysterically and running around like mad. She managed to get an employee to come in early, and came home.

Then, we built a fort. I have to say, it’s not quite as much fun to do that during a storm, on a ladder, with tarps and bungee cords. It was worse when the rain stopped, and the 100 plus degree air was sticky with humidity.

Then, the kiddos came home from school. Moses was especially impressed with the new structure sticking well out into the yard – he can’t wait to play underneath it. Maddie was laughing at our aching muscles. She’s far too mature to be impressed by a fort (but really, she’s just as excited as her little brother).

Fortunately, Lara has the engineering brain. She stared at the garden room roof, stared at the flood, then stared at the tarps. She said “okay,” as if she’d come to an agreement with herself and we went to work.

Needless to say, I didn’t start work until dinner time last night. Moses needed reassurance that the house wouldn’t float away while we slept (it wasn’t THAT much water), and Maddie wanted to know if we could just move away. I think I felt that way while I was moving furniture at warp speed.

Today, I am nursing aching muscles with cherry juice and BioFreeze. (I drink the cherry juice, I don’t bathe in it. Ha!)

I hope you are all having a temperate Tuesday! Blessings to you all…

A photo for your entertainment, from the local news: