sump!

last night, before going to bed, i noticed a strange machine-type humming noise from the plumbing chase. it didn't sound like one of the furnaces, but i didn't quite have the fortitude to go downstairs and check out what it was.

so this morning, i did. as i feared, it was the sump pump. but NOT as i feared, it wasn't running full-tilt because of some kind of flood condition in the basement. instead, it was running full-tilt because the relay hadn't tripped off. (i'm not sure why it went on -- perhaps there was a rise in the water table yesterday during the day?) nothing in the basement looked wet, and the motor seemed fine once i gave teh switch a bit of a push. later, when i'm feeling better, i'll get some contact cleaner and canned air and see about making the control switch work a bit better.