Crisis!

In one key way, my worklife is like being a pirate. When I told Camerin this yesterday, she asked if it was because I get to run people through with my scabbard or because I have to walk the plank all the time. She also made some reference to a parrot. But I wasn't quite thinking of those things. Instead, living in my office is like being in the underbelly of a damp, creaky ship with leaks ready to spring at any time.

When the rains started yesterday, I kept my eye on the Southwest corner of my office. This is where my infamous leak is. I was told earlier this week that the roofers thought they'd finally solved that leak, but I knew yesterday's Armageddon rains would be the proving grounds. During the first minutes of the storm, no water streamed down the brick. All was well.

I went to look at the dark skies out the window. Next door to the office is a testing plant of some kind with a whole back area full of barrels. (Perhaps they test barrels?) When I saw a wind gust throw one of the barrels out of a pile int he warehouse, I thought maybe this was gonna be kinda bad. The sirens started and we all rushed to the basement.

When I came back up, the old leak was nowhere to be seen. Whew. I went back to work. That's when I heard a dripping. Drip. Drip. Drip. I checked the Southwest corner. Dry. Drip. Drip. Drip. And then I realized that what I heard the drips on was the head of my R2-D2 Pepsi cooler. In the SouthEAST corner.

Now, here's the thing: Because the Southwest corner is like a waterfall, I don't keep anything over there. But just this week I redecorated and put new pictures on the corner of the opposite wall and left all my Star Wars stuff on the shelf right under the corner. Why not? It's dry.

Well, this creaky old ship of an office mounted a surprise attack. She hit me where I wasn't expecting it. Water started as three different drips and then turned into a good flow--out of the tiles, over posters and pictures and onto my beloved Star Wars toys. She hit me where it hurt.

To get to the problem, I had to move R2 out. He became a refugee from his home. I moved all my stuff from that corner. Nothing was ruined but some old posters that I really don't care about.

Now, the entire corner is bare. Buckets and trashcans are standing watch. But the good news is that we survived. The old ship is still intact. In fact, the storms turned out to be worse than I thought they were yesterday. Lots of downed trees, electricity outage and damage in the area. My commute home last night took 2 hours but it was mainly because of rain-slowed traffic and not actual storm issues. (Though I did have to caulk up the wagon and ford one river/road.)

I hope the rain stays away today--not just for the sake of my creaky office but also because I'm going downtown for a movie screening (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) and then to the Sox game.

Quotes of the Week

"The dog has more street cred than me. It's had the cops called on it twice!" -Mario

"There's heat coming from inside my shirt!" -The Sister-In-Law.

"I'm damn proud of that veggie tray." -Pure Heart