MerrinDonahue.com

So it turns out that Oliver may not be such a pain after all. In fact, he may just be a hero. You may have heard that we’re having a little bit of weather today. It’s no big deal; just a little wind and some rain. But…..the ground is already super-saturated from all the other rain we’ve had, and our yard floods pretty badly. Again, no big deal, since it drains off pretty quick. Unless it rains for 12 straight hours.

Now, we did the right thing and drained some water out of the pool, so we weren’t really worried about it overflowing. In fact, the lanai didn’t look nearly as bad as it has in other thunder storms. But then Oliver started going CRAZY tonight. I mean, he was going crazazy even by his standards. Howling, baying, barking, digging at the floor (and not just where food has been, either). Since I thought it was cute, I started shooting video of him. And then he headed for the corner of the room, still baying, still barking. I’ve had him long enough that I know that when he does that for so long he’s trying to tell me something, and boy, was he ever.

The drain that runs across our lanai was clogged. Big time. Water had started seeping into the house. Behind the TV, and right underneath where our massive surge protector is. You know, the surge protector that our TV is plugged into. And the laptops. And the AppleTV. And the Wii. And the AirPort. Basically every important piece of electronics we own (minus the tera station). We were able to run outside and clear the clog (well, enough to get through the storm), and we shop-vac’d the water out of the carpet.

So thanks, Smalliver. You just saved our whole digital lifestyle.