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another disaster: "pretty soon now, i will be bitter"

2003-07-20 - 12:54 p.m.

Note: Photos � 2003 by Roger Williams, added about an hour after this entry was first written

view from our front door around 11 A.M.

J.G. Ballard, the SF writer best known to the masses as the Japanese concentration camp survivor who wrote the novel, Empire of the Sun, which eventually became a wonderful Spielberg movie of the same name, once said, "People say that life is short, but they're wrong. Life is actually quite long." Upon popping the lid of a Newcastle Brown Ale, I check the writing under the cap, expecting to be informed that I've lost some contest or that I've won a free beer.

Instead, I am informed, "Life is too short to be bitter."

Sorry, but if I have to choose between the wisdom of Newcastle Ale and J. G. Ballard, I think I'll go with Ballard. If you've never had the opportunity to be bitter, then you probably haven't lived. And, at the moment, I think we have earned the right to be plenty bitter. So I am going to whine. We have had another disaster.

what remains of what we laughingly called our back yard

Yes. I know. We're lucky to be alive, blah blah blah. Well, you know what? We were just as lucky to be alive on June 29, when the oak tree was standing in its accustomed spot and all was right with the world. Right now, I don't need to hear how lucky I am when I've had an oak tree fall on my house, followed up by a flood.

A second disaster. In less than a month after the first episode. And, "pretty soon now, I will be bitter," in the immortal words of David Byrne. Here's how it went:

floodwaters rising to our front door step

We had a huge thunderstorm starting in the wee hours of the morning. I'd say that it woke me around 5:30 A.M. but it could have started earlier. It pretty much stormed straight through until around 11. The first hint of a problem came when I checked the office and verified that the tarp was leaking, allowing rain to fall in the office again. The tarp also later failed in the living room, but it's more of a spreading ooze than a huge downpour. The garage has flooded two or three inches. The street is a river and because of the dumpster parked in the driveway to take away the debris from the previous disaster, BF's new Toyota had to be parked on the street, where it has been destroyed by the flood. My own Toyota, which does not have comprehensive insurance because it has 122,000 miles on it, also took on water, as I learned when I put on short-shorts and waded out past the dumpster blocking my view to see. Maybe it can be saved by a good airing, maybe not. All I can do is cross my fingers and wait for the water to go down so that I can find out.

The van should be fine although, with all my other adventures, I have not yet had time to get the windshield repaired so I can get a brake tag so it can be street legal. Since God has decided to curse our once-fair land, I suppose I'd better get that done at my earliest opportunity. To think that Mandeville was once -- and probably still is -- viewed as paradise. Well, I don't know if the cause is global warming or what, but there is definitely definitely trouble in paradise. I hope we don't lose our no flood zone insurance rates but let's get real.

this was a brand new car last autumn

Front and back yard are knee-deep swamps, but while wearing the short-shorts, I waded out to check on the conures. I was afraid Timmy, who is still in a rather low temporary cage, would be drowned, but he was fine. I moved him to higher ground, just the same.

Why did I ever complain about the four year drought?

I'm not normally a Newcastle Ale for lunch girl but hell. There is a limit, and I'm not quite ready to call my primary care physician and add Valium to my list of woes.

around 2 P.M.

I think I will have to rethink the phrase, "It is never a bad day when you see a kite," because a short while ago, I did see a Mississippi Kite and, let's face it, I am not having the best of days.

BF is checking out the damage to my Toyota, which so far looks pretty minor. His Toyota is a write-off, though.

around 3:30 P.M.

They just towed away Roger's Toyota. With the toll tag in it. Sigh.

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