The Deluge Known as Fay

I don't know when I've seen more rain in a 24 hour period. I thought about building an ark but I don't really have any idea how big a cubit is. I suppose I could check the builders manual (a.k.a.Bible) but I don't think there's a handy conversion chart in there.

Got a few pictures while I was out Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, I went out a time or two Saturday. My 12 year old had spent the night with friends Friday night and by mid-afternoon Saturday they were concerned that their road was about to flood out completely so we met up halfway. It was surprising the number of people out shopping. Power was out in a lot of places but their were still stores and restaurants open. Starbucks, in fact. If I could have parked close enough I would have gone in. Yes, I own an umbrella, but an umbrella is pretty useless when the wind is blowing the rain sideways. Besides, it's kind of embarrassing (and really annoying) to have your umbrella blow inside out...

These first pictures are the rainwater discharge pond at the front of the complex where I live.






What you see is flood vs. non-flood versions of the pond. The non-flood version was taken today (Tues. eve), and as you can see the landscaping and white railing are usually not underwater. The water is still about 10 inches higher than normal.

My second trip was due to my 16 year old wanting to go to a friends house to hang out with an accumulation of teens(similar to a gaggle of geese in many ways). Since she is learning to drive this year I thought it would be a good thing for her to experience these poor driving conditions. Here's a re-enactment of our usual driving lessons:

Me: Slow down. Slow Down! SLOW DOWN!!
Her: Ooooh! Turn up the radio! I like this song!!!

Neither one of us could believe I let her drive, but I would rather she learn to navigate bad conditions with me in the car than to learn it on her own. She would probably have preferred learning alone, since I took the opportunity to impart every piece of driving-in-bad-weather advice imaginable. I think this is the first time she actually turned the radio down and paid attention. Nothing teaches you to slow down like a good scare or two - such as not being able to see well, semi-flooded roads, and feeling your car slide because you have no traction. Yeah, valuable learning experience that one. Come to think of it, this is probably the first time that she was more afraid while she was driving than I was.

The flooding only worsened as the evening progressed. The city asked for a moratorium on the use of washing machines and dishwashers, since all the run-off and flooding was overwhelming the sewer system. Guess who had a full dishwasher and a bunch of laundry to do? Note to self: next time a big storm is coming do the laundry and run the dishwasher before the storm. I guess I could have taken care of it Friday after work, but hey - it was Friday! Who wants to do laundry on Friday???

These last two picture are at the soccer complex.




My oldest daughter had training Sunday afternoon and pretty much nothing gets in the way of soccer. I've seen them play in raining, 40 degree weather. They don't care, unless they lose. Field 1 was completely underwater as well as a large portion of the front parking. We do get puddles now and then, they just aren't usually this big...


I didn't bother driving all the way around the complex because the road on the other side is lower, along with a couple of the back fields. There is one field out of the ten that has artificial turf (and it's on high ground) so they trained there to avoid mud issues.

A lot of neighborhoods lost power, some neighborhoods were evacuated due to flooding. A lot of trees have fallen and continue to fall because the ground is so saturated and therefore unstable. In fact, late this afternoon we heard a loud crash at work and saw that a tree had fallen on the back storage building. Nothing close enough to the main building for me to worry about ;) Now we wait to see if "Gustav" makes an appearance this way!

Toilet Kitty ™

It seems that Rafik is a toilet kitty. Let me explain. For some reason she thinks it’s her duty to accompany me whilst I am ‘indisposed’ in the bathroom. Seriously. I can’t use the toilet without her racing in to assist me. My other cat doesn’t do this – she’s sensible and she could care less what I do unless it involves the kitchen. Rafik however comes running if she see’s me head for the bathroom, or hears the bathroom door close. It is somehow obvious to her (not me!) that I need her in my lap when seated on the toilet. Yes, I know I can close the door and keep her out, it’s just that after it happened a couple of times I thought I’d see if she would always jump up in my lap. Sure enough, she jumps up and lies down and purrs…weird. God forbid I should shut her out - she meows pitifully to be let in. Come on, kitty, I’ve been using a bathroom unassisted for quite a lot of years now!

So now I’m thinking, “Hey, I should clone this cat and trademark her!” People might pay to have a Toilet Kitty™! Weird, twisted people, perhaps, but their money still spends the same...Can you see the ad?

“Now that I have my Toilet Kitty™ I get a warm, fuzzy feeling whenever I pee!”

or

“I really enjoy doing my business now that I’ve got my Toilet Kitty™!”

What? Was that too much information? Yeah, I guess you didn't come here to read about my toilet habits....and if you did, well, you're just the sort of person that would buy a Toilet Kitty™!

In the Midst of Fay

When I left off yesterday I had been for a good run and was anticipating the arrival of Fay. Well, she's here - passing through the area on her westward travels. The 'eye' of the storm passed south of us during the night so now we are in the heavier part of the storm. This is where we get the heavy rain, steady wind and strong gusts. So far so good - we still have electricity, which I am taking advantage of by cooking and posting.

I went to a friends house yesterday afternoon and we played cards, and I learned that my 12 year old, while seeming to not know what she's doing, is actually quite a good player of cards! She won - repeatedly. Good thing no money was involved. She would agonize over every draw and discard and truly seemed clueless - she had a fistful of cards and just when a couple of us were poised to play our final cards and win, her turn would come and she would draw a card and suddenly lay them all out for a win. It was uncanny!

After a few hours of cards/movie watching my daughter stayed the night there and I came home to see what my 16 year old was up to. As I went to get in my car I saw that one of my front tires looked ominously low. Great. Now I have to stop to air up a tire. Gas pumps are covered so only blowing rain will get you. Not so with the air machine...no coverage at all. #!%*!#!!. I got soaked. When I got home my daughter was busy making plans to go out with friends - plans that were quickly quashed by myself and the other parents, due to the worsening storm. So we hung out for the evening and went off to bed semi-early.

Good thing we got some sleep because by about 3 a.m. we were awakened by the storm in all it's glory. We have lots of trees around here so the wind gusting through the trees and the rain hammering on the roof kept waking us, along with occasional sirens.

By 7 a.m. we quit trying to sleep and did the next best thing - made coffee and some breakfast and sat on the balcony to watch the storm. Our balcony is semi-enclosed and screened so it was perfect for enjoying the view without getting wet. We were discussing birds and how much it sucks to be clinging to a tree during a storm, when I looked over and saw something running along the ground. Turned out to be a rabbit. What!!!??? What possessed a rabbit to get out in this weather? I always assume that animals have some internal guiding system that tells them to fill up before an approaching storm. Instincts that are guided by barometric pressure or some such thing. Apparently I'm wrong. Or this was just one dumb rabbit.

Enough for now. Elder daughter has gone off to get the sleep she missed last night, and so long as it's going to be dark and rainy I may as well get a nap in too!

Fay is coming my way...

...so what am I doing? Well, I went running that's what! More about that in a minute. I did go to the grocery store to stock up on some non-perishable food and some gallon jugs of water. We always have a certain amount of emergency supplies because I've lived in an earthquake zone, tornado country and now hurricane world. Not that I think this is going to be such a bad storm for us.

Right now we are in the outer bands - light wind, occasional showers. The center of the storm will move south of us and likely pick up more water from the gulf to dump on us. My biggest problem will be the power going out due to falling limbs/trees. No cooking, no air conditioning, no internet!!!! Parts of town and certain streets will flood, but it's the coastal counties that will bear the brunt of the storm. There's a chance for tornadoes but somehow they always seem to hit the counties around us...thanks to the lay of the land or perhaps dumb luck.

As for running, well this is awesome weather for running, or any exercise really. What makes it good is the light wind and rain. See with these outer bands of the storm the temperature is in the mid to high 70's, which is about 10 degrees cooler than usual. Also, no direct sun beating down on you, so it's about as comfy a run as you can have this time of year. Hey, if I'm gonna exercise it's gonna be as comfy as possible, ok? "But what about the treadmill?" you ask. Hmmm, that is air conditioned but also boring. I really do prefer the great outdoors.

The route I run starts out level then goes downhill, levels out again and then uphill on the return. For the downhill portion the wind was in my face so I figured that I would have the wind at my back on the uphill return right? Wrong. Wind has a way of shifting so there went my help on the uphill! So there I was, running with the wind fighting against me and thinking about my epitaph:

Here lies Annette,
toned and dead;
She died while running,
what more can be said?

At least I might look halfway good in the box.

Back to Fay. They announced yesterday that the schools would be closed today. Bloody hell! The kids just started back; it's us adults that need the break! Which we sort of got. I pointed out to my boss that we had no appointments until 9 this morning so we ought to sleep in. He went for it. We went in at 9, did about an hours worth of work, ate donuts and left at 11:15. That's my kind of work day.

I'm off to do errands now before it gets too ugly to drive. See you on the flip side...

Viva la Vida

I listen to a pretty wide variety of music and lately I've been catching this tune on the radio and it's grown on me.


I didn't really pay attention to the lyrics at first, I just enjoyed the sound of the song - an uplifting sort of feeling. I like the use of orchestral instruments, and I also like the singer's voice. Then I started listening to the lyrics. You know, sometimes you start to like a song and then when you really listen to the lyrics you realize the message is not what you thought and it ruins the song for you. So I started to listen to the lyrics but I didn't get them all. Enter the internet. I love it - I can find anything on here, including the words to songs.

So, I got online and found the lyrics...only there were several versions! You know, the old 'mondegreen' problem. Was it "Lucy in disguise with diamonds" or was it "Lucy in the sky with diamonds"? Basically, I just wanted to see what the song was about and it seems there are many different interpretations of what 'story' the artist was telling. Was it religiously significant? Was it about Napoleon? I'm not quite certain but at least it's nothing overtly objectionable.

Anyway, I think I'll stop analyzing and just enjoy. Please do the same yourselves!

Tag-Team Bageling

Holy Crap!! I was actually running ahead of schedule this morning, so I decided to stop at the local bagel shop near my office. I pulled into the parking lot with visions of a nice toasty bagel with butter melting on it, along with a hot cup of coffee. Powerful coffee, not office coffee. I proceed into the bagel joint and see that there are two women at the counter ordering, and no line!! What miracle this? The two women were apparently ordering for some sort of office meeting. I had ten minutes before I had to be at work. With no line I should have been in and out and on time to work. Then reality came crashing down.

The two women were apparently using some sort of tag-team technique for ordering bagels. Lets call these ladies W1 and W2 (woman 1, woman2). Their order went like this: W1, "Let's get 3 of the everything bagels." Then she would consult with W2, and W2 would say, "We'll take 5 of the tomato/basil bagels." More consultation, followed by W1's request for 4 more bagels of another variety. This went on to the point where I wanted to tear my hair out and scream until my lungs collapsed. Or just bitch-slap the tag-team. The guy behind the counter didn't seem any happier about it than me. Finally, another employee came along to assist me and the line that had formed behind me. As I'm ordering I hear W2 say, "Is that 39 yet?"

What!!!! You need 39 bagels for your office - okay, I'm fine with that, but a normal person would just come in and ask for, oh say half a dozen of 6 different flavors plus 3 extra of one flavor. Am I wrong to think that's how to do it? Do you seriously need to consult with someone every 4th or 5th bagel??? Next they had to make important decisions about which tubs of cream cheese should be purchased to accompany the bagels. Luckily I had bypassed them at this point and was able to get my coffee and pay before they made it to the cashier. God only knows how long the cream cheese consultation went on. Hmmmm. Maybe they were getting paid in 15 minute increments for their 'consulting' work. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

The Mindset List, a.k.a. Boy Am I Getting Old!

I was cruising the internet today and saw an article about the Mindset List, published annually by Beloit College. Every year you see a list like this around the time of graduation or when college freshman are starting school. The lists are designed to refresh the older generations on the relevance of topics and point of view of the younger generations. These lists always provide both a laugh and a shock for me. Case in point:

Kids starting college this fall have always lived in a world with GPS and phones with caller ID.

My kids will hardly answer a phone if they can't see who's calling. My daughter asked me once in disbelief, "How did you know who was calling before caller ID?" "Well, we answered the phone," was my reply. As for GPS, well, people still seem to get lost in spite of it!

"The Tonight Show" has always been hosted by Jay Leno.

Yes, kids, some guy named Johnny Carson used to host that show with Ed McMahon at his side. Yes, Ed actually worked in TV before Star Search! No, Ed wasn't just the spokesman for Publisher's Clearinghouse.

Watergate.

Just ask a college student about Watergate. Go ahead. I did it at work today and my coworker had no idea what I was referencing. She did, however, recognize the name Nixon.

IBM typewriters?

Whenever my children complain of having to write an essay or do any kind of writing project I regale them with stories of the "old days" when we struggled with typewriters. Just one clean page of typing was a nightmare to produce. Spellcheck? It was called a dictionary. Fonts? What??? Seriously, computers make writing such a dream! No backspacing to center your title. When you make a mistake you just delete. Don't like the way your paragraphs are organized? Cut and paste!

This reminds me of the first time I experienced an 'old' moment...and I wasn't even old. I was home from college one summer and I went to a music store at the mall. As I was browsing the selections I overheard a high school student exclaim, "Wow! I didn't know Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings!!!"