rain pain drain stain

Was M supposed to have been visiting right about now? It's a good thing she's not here, or any other visitors, for that matter. At 5:30 a.m. I was awakened by loud cracks of thunder. I didn't know it was 5:30 until I got up to pee and walked through the middle room and my feet got wet. That's right, the ceiling is leaking, in a big way. The guest sofa bed had a stream coming down on it, right where M's face would've been at about that time! It's a good thing Timmy peed on that sofa bed once back when and I covered the mattress with vinyl. (Whew!) The curtains in one of the windows are all wet, but not from that same hole, from a hole in the top of the window frame. They'll dry right where they are. Of course, there was water coming from the light fixture; water loves to come through our fixtures! It seemed that everywhere I stepped I was stepping in water. I put the dish bucket under the light fixture and tossed rag rugs all around. I counted eight specific leaks, but it was 5:30 in the morning, I might have missed a few. Fortunately, the keyboard, ukulele and rolling armchairs were spared. I guess the biggest loss was the Junebug poster. The paint on the wall behind it was bubbled up and half of the poster was drenched. I pulled out the bottom thumbtack and water squirted out of the hole! It's really kind of comical in an American-boy-lands-in-a-third-world type situation. The poster is gone; I peeled it off the wall and recycled it. I think it was too early in the day to get all sentimental about a movie poster, particularly with water dripping on my shoulders! The good news is that the previous leaks in my room and the kitchen are holding steady, and that your room and the bathroom are still good.

The other good news is that the repaired blender arrived yesterday. I can't wait to have a smoothie. Maybe I'll put some rum in it. That would probably help...

Last night, I went to see Young at Heart with P, A and L (P's friend; you met her that once when we went to see another movie -- I can't remember what -- at the Arbor). It's a wonderful movie; sweet, sad, funny. (I'm not crazy about the poster, though!) Before that, I picked up A at her house and we drove over to P's. That was at 5:45. We got to P's at 6 and she was casually making miso soup and had hummus, veggies, olives, cheese and crackers set out for us to munch on. We had white wine. At 6:50, we were being served soup; I tried to be calm, cool and collected about the fact that the movie started at 7:15, just mentioned that we might want to keep an eye on the time, because you know P doesn't like to get to a movie too early!

After that, on our way home, A suggested we go to Dolce Vita for a gelato and liqueur. She had a brandy, I had a port, we both had coffee, and I had a blackberry lemonicello gelato. It was a lovely night. I was in bed by 12:30 and up again at 5:30. (You can start reading again at the beginning if you want to live my nightmare!)

I just got a text message from R (at 6:45 a.m.) telling me that her brother died and services are today. I feel like I should go up and visit her. xo