Someone Angered the Rain Gods (and I don't think it was me...)

image found here

As I was arriving home this afternoon, it started to rain. Then it started to pour. I took video.


The end of the video is my feet showing how soaked the carpet is.

Here are some pictures:

the water coming into the basement rec room

the water outside my mom's basement office door. I had to clear the drain a few times to help the water go down. by the dirt on the wall, you can kind of tell how high it was.

me checking out how deep the water was outside the rec room door.
turns out it wasn't terribly deep where I was, but it was somehow all angled toward the door.

you can kind of see the water squishing out of the carpet by my toes.

we did a lot of vacuuming.
thank goodness for wet/dry vacs!

my forgotten lunch.
pulled it out around 12:20 or so... didn't eat it for almost another two hours.

see that dry-ish looking spot by the wall? that's where caitlin had vacuumed when this picture was taken. serious suction power on that thing.

the dirt line on the bottom of the door showing how high the water got outside.

and just a couple of hours after the rain...
a beautiful, sunny day.

during clean-up, I sent this text to my dad who has gone out on multiple disaster relief efforts through his job (the most recent being Haiti). it says - "is the agency going to send you to draper for disaster relief? i know this one girl* whose adrenaline is all gone..."

*"this one girl" = me. i was exhausted at that point.

the bathtub we used to empty the wet/dry vac (while vacuuming outside and in) after it got full (which it did, repeatedly).

a few amazing things from the day -

- three of us were home and able to start tackling the problem quickly
- my mom was in a session and her client saw water coming into the office as soon as it made it past the waiting room tile
-- if she hadn't been meeting with him, it would have been at least another 10/15 minutes before noticing the problem (that's when Guy woke up, and Caitlin would have seen it when she went down to get him)
-- also, my mom's client was willing to jump right in and start taking care of things, and had me invite his son (who was waiting in the car) to come in and help as well. two extra sets of hands made a big difference - especially in the beginning
- and thankfully, the storm was a micro-burst. furious for a while, but gone fairly quickly.

This is Either Brains or Madness*

In the last little while, I've either discovered, or been told about some awesome races that I'm really considering actually doing sometime...

Metro Dash -

In addition to a stair climb equivalent to climbing a 15-story building...

Warrior Dash -

- I think it's awesome that you get a viking hat when you sign up for this race.


Tough Mudder -

Thankfully, they've provided a 'get tough' training list:

Training for Tough Mudder isn’t like getting ready for a triathlon, marathon, or anything else you’ve ever tried. To get ready for this grueling, one day gauntlet, you’ll have to train a bit differently.

A general tip

We suggest starting off each day taking cold, freezing showers to prepare for the icey water and mud you’ll have to wade through from start to glorious finish.

After your shower, look at yourself in the mirror. Punch yourself in the mouth. This works on two levels: the first is that you get used to pain. The second is that girls love wounds.

Then say your mantra. Every extreme mudder should have a phrase that gets them motivated. Dave Berger taught us, “Every man dies. Not every man really lives!” Yours can be whatever you want, as long as it gives you the right feeling (get your mind out of the gutter.)

Nutrition: What you put in your body has a direct effect on how you preform on May 2nd – mentally and physically. We recommend a meal of raw baby cow, preferably one you found and wrassled yourself (for city dwellers, any form of rodent, bird, or next door neighbor will do.) For dessert, snort two lines of protein powder and call it a day.

Try starting off each day with a vodka-infused wheatgrass shake before you head off for a run. Wheatgrass makes you fit. Vodka makes you tough.

DAY 1

THE FIRE CROTCH To replicate the burning conditions of our ring of fire, cover the inside of your pants with cayenne pepper for a 5k run through the park.
Alternate: Put tigerbalm in your eyes. Stare at the sun.

DAY 2

THE BULLOCKS Strap some steaks to your legs and take a run through Michael Vick’s dogpound.
Alternate: Strap some pill bottles to your legs and take a run through Lindsay Lohan’s house.

DAY 3

EMPIRE STATE OF MIND Since you’ll have to get used to jumping from tall places, practice jumping off buildings or moving cars the next time you take a drive.
Alternate: Make a bungee cord out of Tough Mudder armbands, band-aids, and your ex girlfriend’s underwear. Tie to a tree. Go nuts.

DAY 4

MAN OF STEEL Mental toughness is key – take twice the recommended dosage of viagra with your morning coffee and leave at days end without getting fired from work for sexual harassment.
Alternate: Take six shots of Jameson, and go through every number in your phone without calling or texting anyone – including hot and desperate people who may have given you their numbers last weekend.

Or, if you decide you just want to 'get fit' - they've prepared for that too.


*because I love that movie line, you get about a trillion points if you name the movie

Sometimes I Question My Sanity

I'm thinking about doing this.

I think I'm going to.

I have 7 weeks to train.

Not enough to really train properly, but enough to get ready enough that I'm not just suffering through the whole thing.

And this would help me with the thought I had of doing one a year.

The thing is - I would sign up for the half and call it good - except it's full.

It looks like it'd be a pretty run.

image fond here

So... There's This Guy...

... who works in my office who sometimes drives me crazy - and not in a good way. His desk is in the main office with mine and Linda's. Often either Linda or I will have music playing through our computers and, despite that, he'll start music playing on his computer. In what land is it okay to have two different things of music going on in the same room? Especially in an office? It's so annoying and grating and... annoying...

We had a previous employee who did the same thing and one day I said, "It drives me crazy!" He stopped. Right then. It was never a problem again. He even gave me an official apology, which I thought was pretty hilarious. When I said something like that to the current guy, he said, "Well, I can't hear yours, so it doesn't bother me." And it's continued. ... For months... and months...

I'm starting to come up with ways to handle it, but then I realized they were all passive-aggressive. I thought about:

- turning his speakers off and seeing if he'd notice
- throwing a soft stress-ball at his head

and today I came up with:

- unplugging his speakers and hiding them

I'm not really going to do any of those things, but sometimes I really want to. I just hate confrontation... hate it. I'm also having an extremely difficult time comprehending how doing that is okay.

Because it's not.

Right?

Whenever it happens I turn my music off and I just get angry.