Inundated

She Found the Cat

First Friday and its aftermath is supposed to be a gentle slide into the weekend, restful and restorative. Last night was anything but that. After a summer with virtually no rain, in the midst of a stage 3 drought (whatever the hell that is), we received over five inches of rain in the span of three hours. That’s a lot. Since Worcester is city of hills, it really sucks to live downhill. Luckily I live on top of one of those hills but even I had some water leak into the basement; more on basement tails later.

Flood Waters Last Night at new Facility
Those Are Car Tops in Front of Trees

One of the biggest controversies with the new facility was its location in one of Worcester’s most infamous flood plains. For that reason the building was built on an elevated, manmade plateau. I had made my way to a nearby restaurant after a sodden First Friday when I started getting messages from dispatch indicating the floodwaters were starting to rise. My crew did a fantastic job working around the issues that rose, really proud of them.

Earlier in Storm

I made my way to both facilities, old and new, this morning. The new place came through with flying colors. The floodwaters reached the third step of the front entrance but no higher. Some of the idiots that tried driving through the floodwaters, there’s always a few, usually waiting to be rescued, tore up the front lawn trying to escape. The formerly pristine parking lot is now coated with a substance left by the receding waters that I can only guess and worry at. The old facility took a much harder hit. My old office was flooded out as well as a number of others, luckily, all unoccupied. There would have been a huge hit to take if were still operating out of there but no worries since the new owners are planning on tearing it down as soon as we vacate.

View This Morning

I’m less proud of a certain black Labrador and his absolute panic at any rain storm. I took pity on him when I left for dinner and left him out of the cage since there was no thunder or lightning evident at the time. I returned home to find chaos in the basement (the tail I mentioned above). He had dug insulation out of one wall in his panicked state but the big prize was just around the corner when I found he had somehow scaled some storage shelves and broken my wife’s favorite sangria pitcher. This will bring heavy repercussions and I was seriously considering caninicide last night.

The Former Ceramic Pitcher

I spoke with her a couple times last night but didn’t mention the destruction of the pitcher. I guess we’ll find out if she reads the blog or not. I and Wingman (bless his heart) were trying to see if I could purchase a replacement on line. I eventually tracked the pitcher down to a Portuguese ceramics shop in Lisbon, which of course does not offer on line sales. So we’re back to a doomed Wonder Pooch.

There's a Cat in There Somewhere

I was able to sing a very sad rendition of Happy Birthday to the ABFA last night. As always she was gracious by not cringing too much. I guess I really need the favorite Panamanian to add depth to the song. The Favorite Son showed me the newly remodeled (and almost finished) kitchen and I was blown away. It looks fabulous. All that is left is the long sought after island.

My granddaughter decided to acknowledge my presence again. I think it’s because she finally caught the cat; much to her quarry’s annoyance. She actually insisted her mother call back again later in the evening, whilst I was dealing with the Buddy debacle. That call may have saved Buddy’s life.