bad, badder, but could be much worse

bad: looks like the sump pump in my basement failed or wedged. when i toggle it, the motor hums but does not pump.

badder: at some point with the rain a while back, the water got high enough to damage a bunch of claudia's lowest shelf of boxes, many of which were full of books.

could be much worse: we figured the pump failure out tonight, and not AFTER earl dumped a bunch of rain on us.