This is My Life

In lieu of the usual sort of introductory post, I thought I might describe my last couple of weeks, just to illustrate how my life can get and suggest why my blog has the subtitle and address that it does.

So, the other Wednesday, I was having a pretty normal day, the only real wrinkle being that a predicted round of thunderstorms had rolled in that morning.  Because the Friendly Local Weather Man had said these were coming, I didn't think much of them, except to grumble about their inconvenient timing, since when lunchtime rolled around it meant dashing through rain to pile into the truck with the batch of friendly colleagues I usually go to lunch with.  The Lunch Bunch are a great crew--there will doubtless be more about them on this blog--and the Bunch consists mainly of other government-employed geeks like myself, plus a couple of friends and family members who join us occasionally.

Well, we pick one our usual favorite haunts, have a quick bite to eat, and enjoy being back out of the rain, which got pretty heavy on the drive over.  A while later, however, we are in luck as the rain has slackened slightly, so we pile back in to get back to work...when we get a call from one of our other colleagues who is at the office.  The friendly caller wishes to inquire how our lunch has been, where we happen to be at the moment, and--oh, yes--did we know that our building just got hit by a tornado?

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We receive a lively description of the resulting damage from our on-the-ground colleague, but it could not quite do justice to the actual scene.  One entire corner of the roof had been peeled back like a tin can, and a single car from the front parking lot had been plucked up and artistically placed on the sidewalk.  It was really quite impressive.  In better news, nobody had been hurt, and automotive damage seemed to be mainly limited to the Artistic Sidewalk Car.  My own faithful little vehicle was around the back, tucked safely on the lee side of the building and suffered nothing more than being whimsically decorated by a few strategically-placed gobs of (now wet) windblown insulation. 


In another stroke of good fortune, my office and those of the colleagues I most work with are down in a semi-basement area, and are on the far side of the building from the roof damage.  Still, with part of the roof gone, a lot of water made it down to our level on that far end, making rather a mess.  With the integrity of my own office un-breached, I initially considered riding things out and carrying on work as usual.  I then discovered that the network has gone down, meaning no access and no email communication, putting a pretty big dent in things.  To be fair, the email didn't go down until just after we got back from lunch:  sitting in our inboxes when we returned to our desks was a friendly note advising us that a weather warning had been issued for our area. 

Good to know. 

The Internet outage meant I couldn't work on what I'd been planning to work on, but that was no biggie.  There were some other tasks I could take care of.  I cheerfully booted up my main computer and went to bring up some of the relevant programs.  When a minute later power to our section of the building was cut as a precaution against gas leaks...I conclude that this is One of Those Days when more work is simply not going to happen. 


Now, this probably sounds like plenty of adventure all on its own...but wait, there's more! The next few days were quiet enough, and the weather was as calm and pleasant as could be--as my mom would say, "butter wouldn't melt in its mouth".  Turns out it was just leading us on.  By the beginning of the next week, some tarps had been laid over the damaged section of roof, and we all dug right in to our work, laboring to make sure we had everything back on track after the previous week's disruptions.  It didn't take long for a bout of rain to pass through and demonstrate conclusively that there were a few flaws with the tarp-job.  More water, more cleaning-up down at the far end of the hall. 

We survive the week without (further) major incident, and by the beginning of the week after that, we are protected by a whole new batch of super-tarps which are thoroughly weighted down.  This is sagely agreed-upon as a significant improvement, as the same Friendly Local Weather Man from before has predicted a new round of storms building in around mid-week.  By late afternoon on Monday, I'm really on a roll with work, and not really thinking about weather since that "party" isn't scheduled for a couple of days yet. 

I don't particularly notice when the few wispy clouds overhead at lunchtime gradually grow thicker and start to darken.  I suspect there were a first few quiet, distant rolls of thunder I didn't really register, either.  I'm happily tapping away at my computer.  By the time rain began to patter down and the thunder was picking up some steam, I've noticed what is going on, and I find it rather curious, since nothing was really predicted for another day or two.  I presume that it must just be one of those little heat-storms that springs up now and again, and I shrug and turn back to my work.  By the time it dawns on me that the thunder is still gaining strength, and the storm is looking like it might not be quite so small as I had thought, our Kindly Assistant Team-leader from up the hall drifts by my office.  We chat amiably for a minute, as he gives the occasional glance through the window, taking note that the rain has begun to blow sideways.  Hard.  And there is sort of a rattle-and-bang sound coming from the far end of the building.  It is at this point Kindly Assistant Team-leader casually suggests moving out into the hall...which just so happens to be nice...and secure...and away from all windows.... 

We also gather our one other colleague who happened to be present at the time, and we spend a pleasant little while chatting together, listening to the storm, and (for my part, anyway) admiring the merrily tinkling waterfall that was now gracing the far end of the building.  Again.  So much for the super-tarps. 

While this second storm was "only" straight-line winds, it still managed to do quite a number on the local area; any parts of town which hadn't lost power the first time (my home being one of those) lost it this time around (these including the poor Kindly Assistant Team-leader). 

We can't be sure if there there is some weather god somewhere who just doesn't like us, if we have some bad, water-related Karma, or if we were merely the victims of just plain bad luck.  Then again, my faithful little car ended up surviving both times completely unscathed, so maybe the angry weather god's vengeance only goes so far.  I do know one thing, though:  I am definitely keeping my parking space.