Did Someone Say NADM*?: That Gurgling Sound You Hear Is The Flood of '05
Whew. What a messed-up couple of days this has been. We have certainly paid for our lovely weather a few weeks ago, oh yes. The whole damn Bay Area has been storming and flooding for the last few days, but San Anselmo (the town in which both my office and my mom's store are--although our offices are fortunately on the second floor) was particularly badly hit. It's the San Anselmo flood of 1982 all over again, 24 years later. So 2005 went out with a gloopy gurgle, not so much a bang. I was finally starting to relax into my vacation (well, as much as you can relax when you're still getting up at least once a night, not to mention when you're sharing a house with several crazy kids and it's raining outside) and I was all set to do one of those nice year-end wrap up posts, you know, post my resolutions for next year and all that. But then suddenly there were storms, the power went out, everything flooded, and we had to leave our vacation house at the beach 3 days early and come back home to help my poor mom clean out the mud and debris left behind in her store by 2 feet of floodwater. Happy New Year! Sigh.
That's the synopsis. Now for a quick cherries and pits breakdown of the last few days, pre- and post-flood:
Cherries:
-one day of sun (ok at least not rain) at the beach
-walking along the sand next to "the mighty mighty Pacific" (my personal nickname for the ocean) picking up "jewels" (sea glass) and watching the kids have their usual fabulous time with sand and surf
-sitting snug and warm in the window seat overlooking the mighty mighty Pacific and typing away on my chiclet while the rain and wind bluster outside
-I got about a thousand words of new writing done on the novel, on a new chapter
-a few moments stolen away to stand on the ocean overlook in our back yard with my honey, hugging and watching the waves crash (mmm negative ions)
-Eli and Jonah being sooooooooo happy to play with each other for hours on end (and we didn't have to constantly supervise them)
-spending a precious few "time off" minutes relaxing in a hot tub outside with my sister-in-law (she of mall-crawling fame)
-a random hug and an "I love you" from my nephew, who barely notices I'm around most of the time these days (I'm just a delivery system for his favorite cousin-buddy, Eli)
-adorable toddler-type conversations with my incredibly cute 2 year old niece
-getting to give Hanukkah presents that the recipients really really liked
-little moments of interaction/connection with each of my family members
-having random community folks and friends come into my mom's store all day long today asking "do you need any help?" and then staying and working like heroes
Pits:
-all the grumpiness and stress of packing up for a vacation, and of unexpectedly and frantically packing up to leave to go home
-you can call it a vacation, but when you're wrangling small children all day and waking up in the middle of the night and way too early in the morning, a vacation is not particularly relaxing
-having to cut short our so-called vacation halfway into it
-spilling water all over my chiclet's keyboard (but fortunately I think it's fine)
-spending a day cleaning up mud and damaged merchandise (physically draining) and trying to keep everyone's spirits up (emotionally draining)
-looking at beautiful handmade things, ruined by mud or water, and then throwing them into a junk pile in the street
-Eli getting sick with a fever today (no doubt from the general excitement and the not getting anywhere near enough sleep due to his favorite cousin's presence over the last few days)
-the baby falling down and bonking his head about a zillion times (that's what happens when you're learning to walk, but still)
Ok, that's probably not it, but it's already 11pm and I've got to go handwash a bunch of scarves and coats for my mom in an effort to salvage some things from the flood. Hopefully more commentary (and some pictures I took of the flooding) tomorrow. And I'll get around to posting those new year's resolutions eventually.
Oh man! Like this you needed? I thought about your mom all weekend. What a mess! I'm so sorry you had to cut short your vacation and that so much merchandise was destroyed. Please know my thoughts are with all you Dvorins. We got lucky. We had some flooding in the garage and may have to get rid of the carpet - but nothing of value was destroyed. John spent a lot of time trying to divert water and using the shop vac - but it could have been much worse. The school across the street from us had flooding in all of the classrooms and is closed for two more days. We were suffering from such cabin fever I can't imagine two more days of it!! Those poor kids and their parents!!
Wow, you nailed down the "why vacation isn't really vacation" thing perfectly. We spent some time in OC this year, and now that the kids are a little older, things went much more smoothly, but that "new place, can't sleep" thing is ruthless. Very sorry to hear about the flooding, what a nightmare! And right in the middle of when you expected to be kickin' it freestyle in Stinson! Arrrrrg!
Drat! Also bummed to hear about your mom's shop and your not-quite-a-vacation getting cut short.
Hang in there, oh-supportive-one.
And w-a-l-k-i-n-g? Did I hear that right? (It's so astounding, I couldn't even post the comment with the word spelled correctly - it raised a red flag, for some reason.) But anyway, wait a minute. I missed the crawling stage!