Weblog 336
July 22, 2012~ 1:30 am
It's been a long, long week. Very strange... very taxing. One of those weeks that feels almost nightmarish, it's so fatiguing.
That's my take on the fast-moving, blurred passage of time these past seven days. It's been a like a siege stuffed with extra work due to co-workers being out of the office and a doubling up of responsibilities. Then there was the punishing heat and humidity and then ... then ... the terrible storms that passed through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. (By Friday evening, I felt like I'd become a puppet being crafted by others into some bland, faceless form
without a single say in the matter. One who merely stares blankly at those who are shaping me to their purpose, as I wait dumbly for further instruction.)
(I guess it's apparent I've been feeling pretty frazzled; just about spent by the time this weekend rolled around.)
We missed seeing Holly and the kids due to..... well...... flash floods.
When I left the office on Friday afternoon at 3:00, fully expecting to meet Wayne in an hour and truck on over for pizza and relaxation, the storms that had battered us on and off all afternoon--- the storms that had cut our power at work SEVERAL TIMES on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to add to the chaos of working in a computerized office ---those storms simply did not let up, and continued to pound us with record rainfall.
Where I live, it rained more than two inches in one hour, and resulted in this.
That's Route 51 approaching Route 88-- my house is located 1/3 mile from that intersection. (And yes, they closed the road.) In addition to that mess, BEYOND my house, another third of a mile at the next intersection, Saw Mill Run had again overflowed its banks till that juncture looked like a lake
at its connection to McNeilly Road. (That's normally not a place for rowboats, but a vacant LOT.)
And again, 1/3 of a mile from my house, but in the opposite direction, this was the picture. BOTH ROADS were CLOSED DOWN and impassable until the water receded and the muck and tree limbs and debris had been cleared away.
I heard all this on the radio as I started my drive home and I knew my usual route was definitely 'OUT', so I snaked through downtown in a long line of slow-moving traffic, then into the South Side, crawling along with the other cars- windshield wipers going -and listening to the radio announce that 'both intersections would be closed for several hours.' CRIPES! (And what about the house itself? Would the basement be a mucky, flooded disaster as well?)
Worst of all, after sitting an hour and a half in the car I had to PEE, really, really badly! (I'm not kidding, one light in Mt. Oliver took 20 minutes to get through at a four-way intersection. Each change of the traffic light would allow precisely one AND A HALF cars to make it though, which naturally snarled up the opposing traffic at the four-way light with everyone trying to make their turns, so there we sat amid loud honking and cussing, feeling our bladders ready to BURST.
THIS was Route 51, a road I travel each way, each work day.
Cars stalling out, drivers having to be rescued.... there was NO WAY I was getting anywhere NEAR that. At one point, I at last saw my way clear to pull into a shopping center and VERY GRATEFULLY found a BATHROOM! Since I couldn't get home anyway, I did my shopping for the weekend and called Wayne a couple of times, got back in the traffic queue afterward and slooooowly putt-putted along with everyone else.
I left work at 3:00 and finally made it home at quarter to eight that night. (I approached my house from the south end of Rt. 88 -after deciding to stop at Calabria's for coffee and a pizza, since the radio reported that the road wouldn't open again till seven o'clock. "Where's your HUSBAND?" they wanted to know. (Indeed. Where was my usual Friday WORLD?? But at that point I was so HAPPY to be drinking coffee and stretching my legs and EATING SOMETHING, I just laughed a tired laugh that sounded borderline hysterical to my ears and chatted up a few other folks in the restaurant- everyone having a story to tell about 'how they got there' that evening. Misfortune DOES makes fast friends of strangers.)
I told the woman in the booth next to mine, having dinner with her little son and her mom and dad, that she looked just like a celebrity. "Oh, I know. I hear that all the time. Drew Barrymore, right?" "Well, I can see that too," I said, "but you REALLY look and SOUND just like Ashley Judd. Drew Barrymore's eyes are too wide set. Makes her look sleepy and stupid. No, you look much more intelligent than her. Like Ashley Judd." LOL!!!! (She laughed and said that yes, that's the other celebrity people say she looks like.)
Let's face it... I was punch drunk with fatigue and feeling overly-friendly at that point, just pleased to be talking to people and on dry ground again. And HALLELUIAH! The basement was just a bit damp from rainwater leeching through the old windows and foundation cracks, but no MUCK and no raw sewage. (I have too many unhappy memories of years cleaning up with hose and a gallon of bleach, rubber boots and plenty of PROFANITY.)
Saturday Wayne DID come by and we whisked Mum up and drove to my sister Kathy's for a MULTIPLE JULY birthday celebration. (Five people in the family have July birthdays. We sang Happy Birthday five times. LOL!!) It was a lovely evening, and here I sit..... WAY LATER than usual, typing away and still feeling as though things are a bit 'off'. A bit surreal.
Honestly...... this weekend should be FOUR DAYS LONG in order to recuperate and recover from this past work week. But no, it's just two short and busy days, and tomorrow it's back to see Mum and have dinner, drag on home in the evening, fall into bed and wait for that 4 a.m alarm to do the whole blasted thing over again. AIN'T LIFE GRAND???
July 23, 2012~ 4:30 pm
Well, I drove the route I'm accustomed to driving on the way home tonight. Other than dried mud, bent roadside foilage, some broken and smashed guard rails, it was without incident today, and fast....thank GOODNESS.
I was happy to find ONE BIT OF NEWS that brightened my day- after seeing only videos of the local flood and the horrors of those poor theater victims in Aurora Colorado, whose fate is now burned into my psyche --I was grateful to find something to make me smile.
INSIDE a Sears store at the Pittsburgh Mills Mall on Sunday
they found a 100 lb. female juvenile BEAR roaming about. LOL!!! (Must have been looking for the Food Court, poor thing.) And they DIDN'T SHOOT HER! They tranquilized her and moved her out, back deeper into the wild, where no doubt she'll wake up with a hangover and think, "WTF?? What happened last night?"
(Actually, the bear is one who'd already been 'tagged' in the past. A 'repeat offender'. LOL!!) I guess that's one ursine lovely who just has a hankering to SHOP. "The hell with the results..... just lead me to the discount table."
I was so pleased that at least in that instance, bullets didn't come into play at all. FARE THEE WELL, DEAR BEAR! Happy trails, sweetie! :)
July 24, 2012~ 7:30 pm
TORRENTIAL RAINS again! (Luckily, the two murderous downpour storms happened early enough in the day so that I was able to bypass their results on my drive home today.) I was even able to make it all the way up Route 88 to mum's personal care home.... without incident. Thank heaven for small blessings.
As always, when I want to shut out the world, I begin to browse art, and today I found an absolutely delightful artist whose work is rich with symbols, primitivism and something deeper. Something elemental in feminine nature, but she does it with such a light, innocent touch, you are barely aware you're tapping into what Carl Jung would call, the Collective Unconscious. Feast your eyes on the work of
Click on that homemade banner of mine and see a goodly portion of her work. Part of its charm is that Kim Richardson paints directly on wood, and I believe the wood-grain adds so much to the overall richness of her work. Playful...... meaningful.... darkly humorous.... inspired. I love it. Every piece.
Today, I give thanks for rain when it sometimes holds back its worst, and I give thanks for artists like 'Keek'-- she opens my eyes and surprises me.
(And besides..... I've always been a push-over for 'beaked creatures' reminiscent of Hieronymous Bosch. 'Bird people' are my 'thing'. :)
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
It's been a long, long week. Very strange... very taxing. One of those weeks that feels almost nightmarish, it's so fatiguing.
That's my take on the fast-moving, blurred passage of time these past seven days. It's been a like a siege stuffed with extra work due to co-workers being out of the office and a doubling up of responsibilities. Then there was the punishing heat and humidity and then ... then ... the terrible storms that passed through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. (By Friday evening, I felt like I'd become a puppet being crafted by others into some bland, faceless form
without a single say in the matter. One who merely stares blankly at those who are shaping me to their purpose, as I wait dumbly for further instruction.)
(I guess it's apparent I've been feeling pretty frazzled; just about spent by the time this weekend rolled around.)
We missed seeing Holly and the kids due to..... well...... flash floods.
When I left the office on Friday afternoon at 3:00, fully expecting to meet Wayne in an hour and truck on over for pizza and relaxation, the storms that had battered us on and off all afternoon--- the storms that had cut our power at work SEVERAL TIMES on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to add to the chaos of working in a computerized office ---those storms simply did not let up, and continued to pound us with record rainfall.
Where I live, it rained more than two inches in one hour, and resulted in this.
That's Route 51 approaching Route 88-- my house is located 1/3 mile from that intersection. (And yes, they closed the road.) In addition to that mess, BEYOND my house, another third of a mile at the next intersection, Saw Mill Run had again overflowed its banks till that juncture looked like a lake
at its connection to McNeilly Road. (That's normally not a place for rowboats, but a vacant LOT.)
And again, 1/3 of a mile from my house, but in the opposite direction, this was the picture. BOTH ROADS were CLOSED DOWN and impassable until the water receded and the muck and tree limbs and debris had been cleared away.
I heard all this on the radio as I started my drive home and I knew my usual route was definitely 'OUT', so I snaked through downtown in a long line of slow-moving traffic, then into the South Side, crawling along with the other cars- windshield wipers going -and listening to the radio announce that 'both intersections would be closed for several hours.' CRIPES! (And what about the house itself? Would the basement be a mucky, flooded disaster as well?)
Worst of all, after sitting an hour and a half in the car I had to PEE, really, really badly! (I'm not kidding, one light in Mt. Oliver took 20 minutes to get through at a four-way intersection. Each change of the traffic light would allow precisely one AND A HALF cars to make it though, which naturally snarled up the opposing traffic at the four-way light with everyone trying to make their turns, so there we sat amid loud honking and cussing, feeling our bladders ready to BURST.
THIS was Route 51, a road I travel each way, each work day.
Cars stalling out, drivers having to be rescued.... there was NO WAY I was getting anywhere NEAR that. At one point, I at last saw my way clear to pull into a shopping center and VERY GRATEFULLY found a BATHROOM! Since I couldn't get home anyway, I did my shopping for the weekend and called Wayne a couple of times, got back in the traffic queue afterward and slooooowly putt-putted along with everyone else.
I left work at 3:00 and finally made it home at quarter to eight that night. (I approached my house from the south end of Rt. 88 -after deciding to stop at Calabria's for coffee and a pizza, since the radio reported that the road wouldn't open again till seven o'clock. "Where's your HUSBAND?" they wanted to know. (Indeed. Where was my usual Friday WORLD?? But at that point I was so HAPPY to be drinking coffee and stretching my legs and EATING SOMETHING, I just laughed a tired laugh that sounded borderline hysterical to my ears and chatted up a few other folks in the restaurant- everyone having a story to tell about 'how they got there' that evening. Misfortune DOES makes fast friends of strangers.)
I told the woman in the booth next to mine, having dinner with her little son and her mom and dad, that she looked just like a celebrity. "Oh, I know. I hear that all the time. Drew Barrymore, right?" "Well, I can see that too," I said, "but you REALLY look and SOUND just like Ashley Judd. Drew Barrymore's eyes are too wide set. Makes her look sleepy and stupid. No, you look much more intelligent than her. Like Ashley Judd." LOL!!!! (She laughed and said that yes, that's the other celebrity people say she looks like.)
Let's face it... I was punch drunk with fatigue and feeling overly-friendly at that point, just pleased to be talking to people and on dry ground again. And HALLELUIAH! The basement was just a bit damp from rainwater leeching through the old windows and foundation cracks, but no MUCK and no raw sewage. (I have too many unhappy memories of years cleaning up with hose and a gallon of bleach, rubber boots and plenty of PROFANITY.)
Saturday Wayne DID come by and we whisked Mum up and drove to my sister Kathy's for a MULTIPLE JULY birthday celebration. (Five people in the family have July birthdays. We sang Happy Birthday five times. LOL!!) It was a lovely evening, and here I sit..... WAY LATER than usual, typing away and still feeling as though things are a bit 'off'. A bit surreal.
Honestly...... this weekend should be FOUR DAYS LONG in order to recuperate and recover from this past work week. But no, it's just two short and busy days, and tomorrow it's back to see Mum and have dinner, drag on home in the evening, fall into bed and wait for that 4 a.m alarm to do the whole blasted thing over again. AIN'T LIFE GRAND???
July 23, 2012~ 4:30 pm
Well, I drove the route I'm accustomed to driving on the way home tonight. Other than dried mud, bent roadside foilage, some broken and smashed guard rails, it was without incident today, and fast....thank GOODNESS.
I was happy to find ONE BIT OF NEWS that brightened my day- after seeing only videos of the local flood and the horrors of those poor theater victims in Aurora Colorado, whose fate is now burned into my psyche --I was grateful to find something to make me smile.
INSIDE a Sears store at the Pittsburgh Mills Mall on Sunday
they found a 100 lb. female juvenile BEAR roaming about. LOL!!! (Must have been looking for the Food Court, poor thing.) And they DIDN'T SHOOT HER! They tranquilized her and moved her out, back deeper into the wild, where no doubt she'll wake up with a hangover and think, "WTF?? What happened last night?"
(Actually, the bear is one who'd already been 'tagged' in the past. A 'repeat offender'. LOL!!) I guess that's one ursine lovely who just has a hankering to SHOP. "The hell with the results..... just lead me to the discount table."
I was so pleased that at least in that instance, bullets didn't come into play at all. FARE THEE WELL, DEAR BEAR! Happy trails, sweetie! :)
July 24, 2012~ 7:30 pm
TORRENTIAL RAINS again! (Luckily, the two murderous downpour storms happened early enough in the day so that I was able to bypass their results on my drive home today.) I was even able to make it all the way up Route 88 to mum's personal care home.... without incident. Thank heaven for small blessings.
As always, when I want to shut out the world, I begin to browse art, and today I found an absolutely delightful artist whose work is rich with symbols, primitivism and something deeper. Something elemental in feminine nature, but she does it with such a light, innocent touch, you are barely aware you're tapping into what Carl Jung would call, the Collective Unconscious. Feast your eyes on the work of
Click on that homemade banner of mine and see a goodly portion of her work. Part of its charm is that Kim Richardson paints directly on wood, and I believe the wood-grain adds so much to the overall richness of her work. Playful...... meaningful.... darkly humorous.... inspired. I love it. Every piece.
Today, I give thanks for rain when it sometimes holds back its worst, and I give thanks for artists like 'Keek'-- she opens my eyes and surprises me.
(And besides..... I've always been a push-over for 'beaked creatures' reminiscent of Hieronymous Bosch. 'Bird people' are my 'thing'. :)
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