Quick update

We are heading back to Providence to collect another car load of our belongings. Kent got these pictures this morning. The view is of the Christian Science headquarters.

U turns? Really?

Dear Providence drivers,

As I leave you this week, I do have some questions I hope you can answer for me. You see, I’ve found the unwritten driving rules quite bewildering in the almost three weeks I’ve been here. So perhaps you can clear things up for me.

1. How do I know when you plan on making a u-turn directly in front of me? I don’t see a turn signal and really a turn signal wouldn’t exactly be appropriate. So am I missing something here? Do you do some sort of weird hand gesture or a head bob or something? Clue me in please.

2. In the same vein, why do you get angry with me when I don’t realize you are making a u-turn in front of me and I fail to yield to you? Is there a law I don’t know about that says anyone making a u-turn gets to go first?

3. Let’s not forget plain vanilla left hand turns—directly into oncoming traffic. Are you sure I’m going to stop? Because to the best of my knowledge, I have the right of way and you do not. Yet you turn mere inches from my front bumper and you get mad at me.

4. Pedestrians, you get a question as well—why, when there is a clearly marked cross walk half a block away, do you decide it would be better to dart across the street directly in front of my car? You don’t even have the excuse of bad weather. Are you that confident I’ll both see you and be able to stop?

Thanks in advance for your answers. I’m confident you can clear this up for me, and I remain hopeful I can leave without actually killing anyone.

Elizabeth

53 East Manning Street

My mother lived in Providence as a little girl, and she gave me the address. We drove there today to check it out and wow, it's a cool neighborhood full of historic houses in great shape. It looks as though the house was like the neighbors and was an upstairs/downstairs duplex, but it's been combined into one single family home. So there's a 51 East Manning Street but no 53 East Manning Street.

We took a short video plus a couple of pictures.

Edited to add that after conferring with my uncle, my mother says their address was indeed 51 East Manning Street. What a very cool neighborhood.

Miscellaneous thoughts in the midst of drying out

First, I am so very glad we had water and not sewage in our apartment. The water came from a water main under the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Claremont Park, about 75 yards from our building—so it was relatively clean. I’m sure we got a lot of street grime and oil and dog poop/pee, but we didn’t have floating human sewage or that kind of smell.

The main that broke was a 31” pipe and it created a huge sink hole as you can see. The city of Boston has been working there around the clock since the main broke Wednesday afternoon.

Second, it’s amazing how much damage just 18 inches of water can do. Our stove is fried, our freezer got water in it, as did the dishwasher. We are pretty sure the hot water heater is fried, and also our washer/dryer unit.

All our furniture is damaged, most considered beyond repair. We’ve asked that four pieces be restored because they can’t really be replaced: the coffee table and end tables that came from my mother, and the amazing armoire my mother-in-law gave us. Our bed frame will probably be OK because it’s metal but I won’t hesitate to toss it should it either rust or smell.

I have three pairs of shoes right now because I stored mine under the bed and in the bottom drawer of a dresser. Edited to add: the surviving shoes are a pair of running shoes, another pair of athletic shoes and my black knee-high patent leather boots.

Third, if you don’t have insurance on the contents of your home please reconsider that decision. Our insurance company is being amazingly helpful and all our clothing and shoes have been sent out for cleaning and possible recovery. Our next door neighbor didn’t have insurance on his contents, even though he’s a home owner.

The cats are finally a little calmer and that’s thanks to the kindness of a couple in our building. Tony and Peter also have a house in Providence and Wednesday evening they offered us the use of this home for the duration of our rebuilding process. That offer and their kindness really got to me and I admit I cried. So we are here in Providence—we drove down Thursday evening so we could get the kitties settled as soon as possible. They were still very freaked out Thursday evening but last night was a lot better.

Waterfire

On the left, you'll see a slide show with pictures Kent took with my point and shoot camera Saturday night. That's all I saw of Waterfire too, alas. I came down with the same stomach bug Kent had earlier in the week. On the plus side, the virus was short-lived but it lasted long enough that I missed all the fun stuff we'd planned Saturday evening.

I did get to see Providence Saturday afternoon and it's a pretty town. We plan to return and do more sightseeing another time, and hopefully virus free.

Fun weekend

We are off to Providence, RI to see waterfire (warning, the website makes fire noises which I find annoying). We'll spend the night to avoid parking hassles and also just to have a weekend away from Boston. Thankfully today is beautiful--sunny and warm!

When we were at Ikea, we found a sort of crinkly tube for small dogs or cats to run through. It's flexible, makes a noise like a plastic bag and has a hole in the middle so the animals can get in three different ways. The tube was sitting on the chair when I found Wally in it.




Finally I took this close up of Eddie sleeping on my desk. He loves to stretch out there and snooze away. Sometimes when I watch him sleeping like that, I get really tired too.