A Shifting In The Sky

Ah yes, woke up this morning and it was the start of a beautiful September day, blue-sky sunny and cool, and while I was in the basement I even heard the furnace come on...

 

Speaking of basements, we had a bit of water in our basement but came through otherwise unscathed from Hurricane Irene. Saturday was weirdly warm and occasionally rainy -- which was fine by me, since Rob's funeral was in the morning, and the rest of the day was spent sort of hanging out in a depressed, headachey torpor -- then the real rain started late in the afternoon, and at around 9:00 the wind, which had been getting gustier and more ominous all evening, suddenly increased to a constant howl. Anne and I were reading in bed and listening to the storm until about midnight, it was pretty wild.

 

We took a walk in the morning and met Debbie; we checked out Monocacy Creek (it flooded the Colonial Industrial Quarter, but I've seen worse), and the Lehigh from Sand Island (also high, officially at "flood stage," but again I've seen worse). There were a few trees down on Sand Island, and some we saw walking through the neighborhoods, and power was out in a few areas, but overall I think Bethlehem, and the Lehigh Valley in general, came out OK -- I have friends in Vermont who have been cut off by floodwaters since the storm.

 

We've never had water trouble, it's just not on our radar, so it wasn't until afternoon that we even thought to look in the basement. Sure enough, we found about an inch of water, in the portion of the basement inaccessible to the drain. We had to bust out the Shop-Vac for a an hour or so, and we tossed a bunch stuff that got ruined, plus a bunch of stuff we just pretended was ruined and tossed anyway because the basement was cluttered.

 

Monday I did a decent run. Normally I do almost exactly a 5k, and my body can absorb that distance just fine, but anything past that (like literally 5k plus five steps) is torture; Monday's run was a pleasant four miles, mostly along the towpath. Not a personal best, since I used to run that far or further on a regular basis, but it was my longest run in quite a while. Just don't ask about pace...

 

Tuesday was the VMB meeting at Jordan, which was nice and short and we got a lot done. I did a ride beforehand, and it was short but not so nice, mainly because of debris (and a few down trees), along the trails. Last night we watched the Brew Works Mug Club Auction, and tonight we're seeing a show at Steel Stacks.