From the people who brought you the Maginot Line

The stairs that lead to our basement from the outside are dark, dank, and generally worthy of an Edgar Allan Poe story. They conclude with a small concrete landing in which is placed a French drain.

For reasons beyond my comprehension, having a drain that is basically a hole in the ground was deemed a good idea by the people who built our house way back during the Eisenhower administration. For six years, we have had no problem. Sure, leaves tend to collect there, and I need to remember to shovel out the snow that invariably piles up when we get a real storm. But by and large, the basement stairs are left to the creepy crawlies.

Unfortunately, the drain is now clogged. So there is some standing water, which I have been dutifully bailing out so as not to provide a veritable Woodstock for mosquito larvae.

More importantly, however, is the threat of Tropical Storm Hanna, which may dump rain for the next two days on us. I have tried Drano and plunging with no great success. And so I leave it to you, gentle reader, for any suggestions you might have about how to unclog a French drain.

I may, in the absence of any flash of plumbing brilliance, take a tarp and cover the stairwell entirely, essentially creating the most dangerous 45-degree slip and slide ever.

Stay tuned...