Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Made it back to my own apartment this morning, after weathering the storm at the boy’s place. No damage here, thankfully, and the soil in the planters with the rosemary on the balcony is nicely damp. There was a little pooling on the balcony, but that was swept off easily.

At the boy’s place, the cheap seals around the windows and his outer door (a large glass affair) didn’t stand up to the sustained winds, so we had a good bit of leakage, mostly at the bottom of the walls, directly into the carpet. Unfortunately the only solution for said leakage is to wait until everything dries and then re-caulk the exterior, which isn’t helpful in the middle of a storm. So we laid down towels and (in the one place it was dripping from the top) a stock pot, and picked up what water we could. Rented a rug doctor to pick up a lot of it yesterday once the rain stopped, but I’m afraid he’s going to be dealing with smelly carpet for a while, until the university’s own folks come in and do a deeper cleaning.

I was exceedingly glad that there was a covered parking option at the boy’s school, so I didn’t have to worry about the car at all during the storm. If I’d been at home it wouldn’t have been a major worry (my parking spot isn’t near any of the trees on our property), but it would have been a slight background thing. As it was the only thing with the car was a lot of tree stuff that splashed up on it from puddles on the way to/from the grocery store to get the rug doctor, which mostly washed off last night when I left it out to get rained on.

So it’s back to work today to see what messes we’ll have to respond to. Hopefully our facilities in the NE are okay, and any hazardous materials were adequately locked down.

Waiting for Hurricane Sandy to hit the DC area is a mess. Haven’t seen a thing here yet, except empty grocery stores. Am very, very glad I made the boy go shopping last night rather than waiting until today – facebook and the like have been full of pictures of empty shelves.

Dragged in the boy’s chair from his balcony, and I took a few things off my own balcony yesterday before coming over to dog-sit today while the boy was at work. Past that there’s not a lot else to do but wait and see what hits tonight and whether I’ll be going to work tomorrow. Luckily I have the option of covered parking at the boy’s place, so the car should be fine when the first wind (and related tree debris) hits. It’s highly unlikely that either of our places will lose power – the boy’s school has “backups for their backups” and my place is close enough to the capitol that all the power lines are buried.

So far I’ve read two comics that were in “the pile” (of reading material waiting for attention), futzed around in the kitchen (butternut squash soup in the crock pot), walked the dog twice as much as he normally goes out, and tried not to pay attention to the work documents that I brought home in case the office is closed tomorrow (that, at least, was successful; I’ve given the taxpayers no free work today). I wish my bike and trainer were here at the boy’s, then I could’ve at least ridden for a bit. But the waiting is the worst.

If for no other reason, I want the election done and over with so I can know how chaotic the next two months after that will be (transition to a new administration [high chaos] versus retention of the incumbent [mild chaos]). Add to the normal mess this whole “sequestration” thingey and I’m not making any travel plans for late December, much to the boy’s annoyance, since we’re supposed to go to Boston and then to the midwest for a wedding. It would be nice if we could count on Congress acting like adults, but they won’t, so in the meantime the rest of us are stuck.

Went in to get new orthoses from a new podiatrist this morning. Hoping these will be better. We talked a lot about the mechanics of the inserts and what did and didn’t work, so feeling pretty good about this set. Will be nice to be able to run again. Saw the dentist Tuesday, teeth are all good. Seeing a new allergist next week, which should be interesting, not least because I’m off allergy meds for the next week. The last time I got tested the only result was being told that I was pretty much allergic to everything, which was neither helpful nor illuminating. So I’m looking for a bit more precision this time, and a different treatment regimen. I’m just tired of taking sudafed daily to dry out my sinuses. Breathing normally without drugs would be a welcome change.

The boy and I are slowly fixing my apartment for his eventual move in. We both have plans this weekend, so can’t do the furniture move/painting we thought we could, so that’ll shift to the weekend after. It’s good that we have time to adapt it and don’t have to do it at once, I think that’s going to help me with the transition. I suspect it’ll be harder on me since we’re taking a space that I’ve had as a solo sanctuary and sticking two people in it. Not that it’ll be stress free for him, either, but hey, my blog, my feelings.

And now, the fourth fifth decade begins.

(Well, not until 8-something tonight, but I figure the day is close enough.)