At Least the Apt is on the 2nd Floor..

So last June we had the fire, over Christmas there was the leaking apartment, and this June there was flooding in our neighborhood. Actually, the flooding wasn't necessarily unexpected - the Stockade neighborhood floods almost every year. Our apartment is up from the river and we're on the second floor, so we were in no danger of water damage - but it was funny talking about it with friends. Destruction seems to follow us. Adam and Beth asked us where we were moving next so that they could avoid the swarm of locusts that would inevitably follow us. I told them right next door to them. ;)

The flooding didn't get too bad, but it was all over the news. I was cooking dinner on Wednesday night and I noticed that there seemed to be a parade of cars streaming past our building. This was very odd because our neighborhood is quiet and self-contained - there'd be no reason to cut through it or anything like that.

After dinner, I convinced Alex to go for a walk so that we could see what was going on. We walked to the end of our street and noticed that the road to the left of us that went down to the river was closed and there was a fat old woman in a blue shirt standing in front of the wooden barrier, talking on a walkie-talkie. We walked to the right and saw that every street that approached the river was blocked off. We peered down the one street and saw that the river had risen so far that it was clearly flooding the basements of the houses closest to it and was beginning to overtake the street. There was a large fire truck sitting at the end of the street - I guess on standby in case they needed to evacuate.

The whole time that we were walking through the neighborhood, cars were still streaming past. As they approached an intersecting street that stretched down to the river, the driver would slow w-a-y down and stare at the water. Apparently these people had heard about the flooding on the news and wanted to check it out for themselves. I was irritated. What would compel someone to drive into an area which, well, first of all could be potentially dangerous and secondly was the site of someone else's anguish? The homeowners were powerless to stop the rising waters from damaging their homes and property, and these inconsiderate assholes wanted to drive by and watch it happen.

I don't know. Maybe I'm a little sensitive to that sort of thing. During our fire last year, I was pretty angry with the onlookers who came to stare at the burning building and devastated occupants and take pictures. It's just... not nice. While we were walking the neighborhood, I refused to walk down any of the streets because I didn't want to seem like one of those people. Alex kept assuring me that since the flooding happens almost every year these people weren't surprised at it and certainly had flood insurance. I hope so, but it still doesn't mean that they want people to come stare at their flooding houses.

Anyway. In other news, our power is currently out in our apartment. It's not even storming out AND the power isn't out in the whole building. I've, of course, paid the power bill, so I don't know what's up. Alex called Scott (the super) to see what the issue was and Scott lamely said that he'd have to check it out when he returns to the apartment in about a half hour or forty-five minutes. Irritating. What's very strange is our electric stove is currently working - the only thing in the apartment that has power. Alex is making breakfast for us, so at least we won't starve. ;) Thank God for laptops... though my battery indicator seems to be rapidly decreasing. I guess that's my clue to save this post and shut down. Morelater...