My conversations with myself, especially when I am being self centered, greedy, and selfish, are about escape.
What would I do with money, if I had it?
Where would I go?
How would I design and build a house?
What charities would I donate to?
My favorite thing to think about is the second question followed by the 4Th question.
I talk to others that I would like to go somewhere warm. I want to be warm all the time. I don't want to spend time indoors. I want to live outside as much as possible. Ideally, I would like to live outside all the time, and sleep under a canopy or tent. I am not a fan of bugs, or crawly things, so I would probably want to sleep inside somewhere.
I like the idea of being able to have two places to live. The "snowbird" concept appeals to me. Live in Florida from October to April, and then go North for the summer. South doesn't have to be Florida. It could be another Southern state, but I want to be somewhere that likes music and allows me to play and sing for a living.
I am pretty upset by the appearance of two tropical storms that hit Pennsylvania. Usually, we can joke about storms and not even notice them because they occur elsewhere.
This time, however, we got hit by both.
Irene came through and scared me to death. There were no limits to the power of that storm. It was supposed to be high winds, and heavy rain. We got very high winds and steady rain, but it wasn't a lot. The wind was the scary part of Irene.
I am glad I had the tree outside the bedroom removed last year, because I am almost sure it would have come down. I've never heard winds like that before. I never want to hear them again.
Irene did do damage, but not as bad as expected. Oh yes, there was damage, but we've had thunderstorms in the summer that did the same type of damage.
Then, along comes Lee.
After all these years of named storms, I had never had one using my name.
Hurricanes are supposed to be named for females, but everyone I spoke with or observed, looked at Lee as male. I don't know why.
Lee never made it to hurricane status. It became a tropical storm and then was downgraded pretty quickly.
The thing about Lee is that "she" moved slowly and dropped amazing amounts of rain. So much rain that she caused major flooding. I found out this morning that the nearest official rain gauge measured 9.2 inches over a 24 hour period. Top this off with the rain from Irene, and my basement flooded a bit.
Pennsylvania was the main state that was affected by Lee. We are the ones on the news right now.
I've been prepared for rain storms since 1992 when we had a flooded basement around New Year's Eve because I didn't know anything about rain gutters or channeling water away from the house. I researched the subject online and fixed as many problems as I could afford back then. All of the problems except one.
I didn't waterproof the basement. Now, I did waterproof the walls of the basement, but didn't do anything about the floor.
It turns out that we have a high water table. It is closer to the surface than other areas. So, when it rains a lot, the water rises through the floor of the basement. Our floor is concrete. There are invisible cracks in the concrete and when the water rises, they expand to become visible and water seeps in. When the water table drops, the water goes away and the basement dries.
I have a sump pump that takes care of the water, but that means that I can't store things on the floor or put carpet down.
Since I channeled the water away from the house using the rain gutters, I haven't had a flooded basement since 1992. So the only place for water to come from to do damage is through the floor. I've had prices quoted which make it very expensive to waterproof under the floor. It would also require major work on the basement. I'm not willing to do that, so I will deal with the occasional hurricane.
I had pondered moving my music equipment downstairs last week so I could practice in a big room, instead of the closets I call bedrooms. I'm glad I didn't do that.
I had a few cardboard boxes down there that I was going to start filling with stuff.
They got wet.
Two of the boxes had books in them.
They got wet.
The water stayed to one side of the main floor, and because the floor is angled properly, the water flowed slowly to the hole in the floor where the sump was. It really didn't help to sweep the water along, but I needed the exercise, so I went down and swept it along every few hours.
I set up fans and ran the dehumidifier also.
I moved the books and boxes, but the aroma of wet boxes still lingers. I will have to do a very thorough cleaning of the entire basement over the next week or so to get rid of the odor.
The water was clear and odor free, so I am not too worried about mold. I will clean with bleach however to make sure.
I have the windows open to help air the place out.
My exercise the past few days was sweeping. Today, I ran the mower. I was amazed at how easy that was. I really thought the mower would get bogged down in the heavy grass, but it didn't.
I have to say that I was very lucky to only have a half inch of water in part of the basement. The next door neighbor did get lulled into that false sense of security and had carpet and furniture in his basement. he had two feet of water, and much of it was not clean. He has a drain in the floor and the sewer lines got full and backed up into his basement.
I did all the work myself and my hands and fingers are really sore, probably a leftover side effect of the Crestor. I wore gloves to keep from getting blisters. Another neighbor didn't wear gloves and his hands are now a mess.
I took a drive today along my bus route in my car (school has been closed for two days now) and observed major roads along my path that were washed away by Lee. I will have some real problems navigating my school bus because the damage will take some time to fix. There will be lots of traffic jams to deal with.
I watched TV tonight and they showed a whole town underwater that wasn't too far away from here, In fact, this morning, I watched video of areas from here to New York that were completely underwater. Marietta is where we go to jam. They have lines on the walls of the bar that show where hurricane Agnes flooded. Those lines have been crossed by Lee. Elizabethtown, just 15 miles North of here had 15 inches of rain. Mount Joy, Manheim, New Cumberland, are now under water. Literally!
Hershey Park and Knoebel's Amusement Park are under water. The zoo at Hershey park lost animals in the flood. The park is accessible from all 4 directions, except now, you can only get there from one direction because bridges and roadways are washed away.
A man was swept away and drowned in the storm a few miles from here (Manheim) in a stream that came across the road. During normal times, you wouldn't even know the stream was even there.
They are comparing this storm to "Agnes" which occurred in 1972 and caused similar damage because of the amount of rain. I was younger and braver back then! Now, I think about all the work I did to this house in the past year and how I would feel if I lost it all to a storm named after me.
It's good to think about things such as the questions written at the top of this entry. It's nice to dream. It helps me to sort out reality from fantasy.
I've been immersed in a show called "Lost" where the people are stranded on an amazing island with lots of secrets and dangers. Reality is much more boring.
Life is still good, even if it is a bit scary.
What would I do with money, if I had it?
Where would I go?
How would I design and build a house?
What charities would I donate to?
My favorite thing to think about is the second question followed by the 4Th question.
I talk to others that I would like to go somewhere warm. I want to be warm all the time. I don't want to spend time indoors. I want to live outside as much as possible. Ideally, I would like to live outside all the time, and sleep under a canopy or tent. I am not a fan of bugs, or crawly things, so I would probably want to sleep inside somewhere.
I like the idea of being able to have two places to live. The "snowbird" concept appeals to me. Live in Florida from October to April, and then go North for the summer. South doesn't have to be Florida. It could be another Southern state, but I want to be somewhere that likes music and allows me to play and sing for a living.
I am pretty upset by the appearance of two tropical storms that hit Pennsylvania. Usually, we can joke about storms and not even notice them because they occur elsewhere.
This time, however, we got hit by both.
Irene came through and scared me to death. There were no limits to the power of that storm. It was supposed to be high winds, and heavy rain. We got very high winds and steady rain, but it wasn't a lot. The wind was the scary part of Irene.
I am glad I had the tree outside the bedroom removed last year, because I am almost sure it would have come down. I've never heard winds like that before. I never want to hear them again.
Irene did do damage, but not as bad as expected. Oh yes, there was damage, but we've had thunderstorms in the summer that did the same type of damage.
Then, along comes Lee.
After all these years of named storms, I had never had one using my name.
Hurricanes are supposed to be named for females, but everyone I spoke with or observed, looked at Lee as male. I don't know why.
Lee never made it to hurricane status. It became a tropical storm and then was downgraded pretty quickly.
The thing about Lee is that "she" moved slowly and dropped amazing amounts of rain. So much rain that she caused major flooding. I found out this morning that the nearest official rain gauge measured 9.2 inches over a 24 hour period. Top this off with the rain from Irene, and my basement flooded a bit.
Pennsylvania was the main state that was affected by Lee. We are the ones on the news right now.
I've been prepared for rain storms since 1992 when we had a flooded basement around New Year's Eve because I didn't know anything about rain gutters or channeling water away from the house. I researched the subject online and fixed as many problems as I could afford back then. All of the problems except one.
I didn't waterproof the basement. Now, I did waterproof the walls of the basement, but didn't do anything about the floor.
It turns out that we have a high water table. It is closer to the surface than other areas. So, when it rains a lot, the water rises through the floor of the basement. Our floor is concrete. There are invisible cracks in the concrete and when the water rises, they expand to become visible and water seeps in. When the water table drops, the water goes away and the basement dries.
I have a sump pump that takes care of the water, but that means that I can't store things on the floor or put carpet down.
Since I channeled the water away from the house using the rain gutters, I haven't had a flooded basement since 1992. So the only place for water to come from to do damage is through the floor. I've had prices quoted which make it very expensive to waterproof under the floor. It would also require major work on the basement. I'm not willing to do that, so I will deal with the occasional hurricane.
I had pondered moving my music equipment downstairs last week so I could practice in a big room, instead of the closets I call bedrooms. I'm glad I didn't do that.
I had a few cardboard boxes down there that I was going to start filling with stuff.
They got wet.
Two of the boxes had books in them.
They got wet.
The water stayed to one side of the main floor, and because the floor is angled properly, the water flowed slowly to the hole in the floor where the sump was. It really didn't help to sweep the water along, but I needed the exercise, so I went down and swept it along every few hours.
I set up fans and ran the dehumidifier also.
I moved the books and boxes, but the aroma of wet boxes still lingers. I will have to do a very thorough cleaning of the entire basement over the next week or so to get rid of the odor.
The water was clear and odor free, so I am not too worried about mold. I will clean with bleach however to make sure.
I have the windows open to help air the place out.
My exercise the past few days was sweeping. Today, I ran the mower. I was amazed at how easy that was. I really thought the mower would get bogged down in the heavy grass, but it didn't.
I have to say that I was very lucky to only have a half inch of water in part of the basement. The next door neighbor did get lulled into that false sense of security and had carpet and furniture in his basement. he had two feet of water, and much of it was not clean. He has a drain in the floor and the sewer lines got full and backed up into his basement.
I did all the work myself and my hands and fingers are really sore, probably a leftover side effect of the Crestor. I wore gloves to keep from getting blisters. Another neighbor didn't wear gloves and his hands are now a mess.
I took a drive today along my bus route in my car (school has been closed for two days now) and observed major roads along my path that were washed away by Lee. I will have some real problems navigating my school bus because the damage will take some time to fix. There will be lots of traffic jams to deal with.
I watched TV tonight and they showed a whole town underwater that wasn't too far away from here, In fact, this morning, I watched video of areas from here to New York that were completely underwater. Marietta is where we go to jam. They have lines on the walls of the bar that show where hurricane Agnes flooded. Those lines have been crossed by Lee. Elizabethtown, just 15 miles North of here had 15 inches of rain. Mount Joy, Manheim, New Cumberland, are now under water. Literally!
Hershey Park and Knoebel's Amusement Park are under water. The zoo at Hershey park lost animals in the flood. The park is accessible from all 4 directions, except now, you can only get there from one direction because bridges and roadways are washed away.
A man was swept away and drowned in the storm a few miles from here (Manheim) in a stream that came across the road. During normal times, you wouldn't even know the stream was even there.
They are comparing this storm to "Agnes" which occurred in 1972 and caused similar damage because of the amount of rain. I was younger and braver back then! Now, I think about all the work I did to this house in the past year and how I would feel if I lost it all to a storm named after me.
It's good to think about things such as the questions written at the top of this entry. It's nice to dream. It helps me to sort out reality from fantasy.
I've been immersed in a show called "Lost" where the people are stranded on an amazing island with lots of secrets and dangers. Reality is much more boring.
Life is still good, even if it is a bit scary.
