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About a month ago, during a hot spell here, a friend of mine in central NJ was taunting me with pictures of his pool and said "bring the kids and come visit." So we did... last week. I know we've all been Irene'd to bits by now, but... this was my TC slot. Thank you for your indulgence as I recap How We Spent Our Last Week Of Summer Vacation:
Follow me below the dingledoodlesquiggliedividerthingie fold...
The K's and I made plans to visit the last week before mine started school, a week before theirs did. We figured we hang out, let our kids get to know each other, and swim a lot.
Tuesday, as I worked on TC and packed the car for our Wednesday-Sunday visit, the news was showing a strong possibility of Hurricane Irene hitting the Northeast. We decided to go anyway and keep an eye on the weather.
Wednesday, we arrived after an overly long drive thanks to an accident blocking Rt. 84 and an eventual detour through scenic downstate NY, had a round of introductions and hugging, then celebrated with a trip to Harold's Deli.
Thursday, it rained. Random, run of the mill rain. We were having a great time hanging out, the kids got along well, and the 3 adult to 4 kid ratio worked well!
Friday was beautiful though, and the kids got in the water for what turned out to be their only dip in the pool - but not their only soaking. By then it was clear Irene was going to go over us. After consultation w Mr. Brillig, we decided to ride it out in NJ where the kids could keep playing with their new best friends. K1 was going to a concert w my friend's wife and daughter, so the earliest we'd have left was Saturday morning anyway. Given my luck with cars, I dreaded a flat tire or other mishap leaving me stranded in nowhereville during the storm. Mr. Brillig held down the fort in MA.
Saturday the rain started around 2pm, but didn't get bad until evening; in fact, we made a last-minute run to Target for a few things around 6pm and learned what people decide are Storm Essentials. Hint: apparently ice cream, bread, and frozen dinners are necessities:
Gatorade, chips and Big Metal Fowl are not:
After exposing my friends to The Princess Bride (yes, there are people who haven't yet seen it... inconceivable!!!) we turned in while the rain fell sideways and the wind blew, fairly sure we'd lose power eventually and looking forward to a Sunday without electronics. Shortly after 8am, I was woken by my friend: "The power went out at 3am, the battery backup on the sump failed, there's water in the basement."
Did I mention it's a finished basement with the kids' playroom, my friend's office, and all their storage space? We raced downstairs to do what we could. After 4 hours we'd moved a bunch of stuff off the ground, bailed a hundred large pails of water (before realizing we couldn't keep up) and were desperately trying to run the sump off a 12V car converter. It was then that we scored a generator; within an hour the sump had cleared out the 4" of standing water, leaving a damp basement full of cleanup work. We moved items until we couldn't move ourselves, trying to get out what we could before the inevitable mold sets in.
I cannot stress enough what a huge help the K's were all day Sunday. K1 lugged half of those buckets up a flight of stairs, then helped carry stuff upstairs. K2 bailed water into the buckets, carried stuff, helped wherever he could, and tried to do everything we asked. My friends' kids were invaluable too, doing everything they could with the additional stress of it being their home that was flooding. Casa Brillig actually didn't get hit so hard, so clearly the Universe put us where we were most needed.
We drove home Monday, a pleasant drive even with the scenic detour through White Plains (and nearly over the Whitestone Bridge, oops!) as the roads we wanted to take were closed due to flooding. The K's started school today, tired but proud of their efforts. My friends, sadly, are still emptying their basement and trying to lay their hands on industrial air movers to mitigate mold until the repair crews can get in. If you can spare a good thought for them, it'd be appreciated. It looks like the damage to the foundation is worse than expected, and my friend has been out of work since mid-July.
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Thank you to Dragon5616, for doing the final comment formatting and mining tonight. I've joined a committee at church that meets monthly, on... yup... Tuesdays.
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From trashablanca:
Organized Crime has a great comment in an ill-advised diary. This quote from it is golden:
If left up to AAs, we wouldn't have had a republican president or congress since JFK. Odd, considering we've caught most of the hell. Imagine no Reagan, or Bushes?
From Ed Tracey:
In the front-page story from Hunter about Megyn Kelly of the FNC asking, "Does it matter if a presidential candidate is dumb?" ..... sharoney recounts the story of a fellow journalism student who aspired to be an anchorwoman ... and with her classmate's looks and lack of ability, sharoney "imagines .... she's doing very well for herself now".
From lineatus:
In my diary about accidental HRs, twigg cracked me up with his response to my comment that the HR warning box doesn't always appear.
From bronte17:
zaka1 makes an astute observation about doctors and their instaneous technological tools for which they charge us an arm and a leg thereby increasing our healthcare costs via that use of technology instead of lowering our costs as it is touted... from Pelosi NAILS the Class War: Low wages are designed to keep you in debt to the banksters by MinistryOfTruth.
From Dragon5616:
JeffW may be a man of few words, but they are highly accurate ones in Joan McCarter's front page post Constituent to Grassley: Save Social Security, lift the payroll tax cap.
In SemDem's angry diary Florida ER: "Good thing you aren't a teacher!", voracious shows those selfish, greedy teachers in action.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
In Joan McCarter's White House Blasts Cantor on FEMA Spending, luckydog points out two LA Republicans who support Cantor's position. eztempo's response was priceless.
I love being able to say this: Top Mojo for August 29th, excluding tip jars & first comments, courtesy of mik:
1) As a frequent diarist here, I must protest: by Seneca Doane — 302
2) The tone alone by awesumtenor — 184
3) You need to contact Admin. by Pager — 169
4) This is one of the best essays I have ever read. by Phoebe Loosinhouse — 143
5) "Jew Nazi?" by Crashing Vor — 132
6) whooo lordy by mallyroyal — 122
7) Allow me to help by Youffraita — 120
8) bah- people like this by dark daze — 116
9) one quibble by Laurence Lewis — 111
10) Holy double wow by Brit — 108
11) "ball of anger" by mallyroyal — 107
12) I think Pericles laid that out perfectly. by Atilla the Honey Bunny — 106
13) How is that they define "complete frustration?" by Keone Michaels — 106
14) I know they are a little out to lunch right now by Pager — 102
15) alright towards the end I started misting up by mallyroyal — 97
16) HOLY COW! Tuskegee airman by HamdenRice — 95
17) my "dad" (I actually called him "Daddy" with no by mallyroyal — 95
18) I think HR must be about my age by Adept2u — 91
19) Our POTUS believes that the deficit is a pressing by RFK Lives — 91
20) Bubba! by jnhobbs — 90
21) The sadly funny part is by ActivistGuy — 89
22) I should absolutely hiderate by gchaucer2 — 89
23) Thanks for offering the counterview by Dallasdoc — 90
24) Well this is from the same crowd by ontheleftcoast — 87
25) 9th depoloyment :( by weaponsofmassdeception — 85
26) Thanks, Pager by gchaucer2 — 82
27) Thank goodness I was only 10 by smoothnmellow — 80
28) I disagree with your definition of "Fight"... by cybrestrike — 80
29) Bravo. My father's family is from Lexington, Va. by FrankAletha — 80
30) The word salad is strong with them, no? by nippersdad — 78