What a week I'm having

If you looked at a weather map of our area earlier this week you would have seen a big red blob over the city, as we had torrential rains for several days. It seemed like we were getting a whole summer's worth of rain in that short time. It hardly rained at all for the past two months and then wham! we got it.

Our basement had not flooded for seven years, but we did not escape this time. It happened after we had left for work, so the water had time to go back down the drain, but it was evident that we had had seven inches of water down there. Most of our stuff has been up on cinder blocks for years, but I did get lazy and leave a few things on the floor, so they got soaked and then thrown out.

The victims? An ancient suitcase full of dance costumes from Kathy's youth was the most important item washed away in the flood. Some files from my book writing, and some old bank statements I'd been meaning to shred. Not too much else really.

This time we had the air conditioning running, so the mopping up was not the sweaty, sticky job it used to be, though I was pretty tired after a couple of hours chasing puddles around the cellar. It just irks me that this happened again. A real estate agent told us that if it's been longer than seven years, we don't have to report it during a sale. I was hoping to keep it dry down there in the event we do sell this house some day. I don't know what the rule was in 1980 when we bought the place, but certainly no one ever mentioned that little detail about the basement's proclivity for flooding to us! It also kills me that the neighbors on either side never have this problem.

This Saturday afternoon Kodiak and I went for a walk around the block a little earlier than usual. Some kids on the next block were running up and down the sidewalk, but stopped when they saw the dog. “Can we pet her?” “Yes, but he’s a him.” There were two boys probably 3 and 4, and girl about 4 or 5. The girl said, “OK, you can go on your walk. We don’t need to pet him that much.” So we went on our way and she called, “Are you going around the block?” “Yes.” “Are you going around twice?” “No.” Guess they still wanted to pet Kodiak.

After the dog walking was done, I went off to 4:30 p.m. Mass, where I wound up lighting the candles, proclaiming the readings and then served as a Eucharistic Minister. After Mass, one woman came up to me and said, “I love it when you have the readings. I want you to read at my funeral. I’ll give you a call!”

Kathy’s sister and her husband came over tonight so she could use our computer to fill out an on line application. When she was done, we ordered takeout from Ruby Tuesday and wolfed down some great food. Well, OK, we were starved, but still, their food is pretty good.

We have someone leaving work and moving out of the state. She has been with us for nine years, running a reading tutoring program. Her supervisor decided we needed to do a “This Is Your Life” video for her. Guess who wound up with the project? Her friend gave me 55 photos and I scanned them all, edited them all and popped them into a Powerpoint over this weekend. I”ll play Pachebel’s Canon over the slides and voilá—a video presentation is born. Hope it works on the big day.

Oh darn, I just realized that I left a thick pile of papers I have to read for work on my desk downtown. Guess I'll have to do something else with my Sunday.