October

I’m sure glad I take photos with my phone—it helps me remember what the heck I did.

In October, Kent and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. We had dinner at Freshwater, which is in Midtown. We opted for their tasting menu with wine pairing, and enjoyed it very much.

Also in October, I did what I do every few years and got a make up do over. I like to do that periodically because I think it’s easy to fall in a rut and then look dated. If you’re going to wear make up (and I am), then why not stay current?

Toward the end of October, Kent and I went to Choir Bar with a friend. He and I had dinner first at Le Fou Frog, which was good but too rich for my tummy. If you’re not familiar with Choir Bar, you can read about it here.

Since that session was the Friday before Halloween, people were encouraged to wear costumes. Kent went as a cow, and I went as Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction sans the hypodermic needle in the chest. Much to our surprise, we had a ton of fun. Here’s the video from that evening. Honestly the only downside was that we both had that song in our heads for weeks.

Then on the actual day of Halloween, a co-worker and I dressed the same on purpose. Even though we don’t really look like each other all that much, we get called by each other’s names, so we thought it would be hilarious to dress alike.

Kent made an amazing butternut squash recipe for dinner—the butternut squash “steak” is sautéed in butter, sage and a little bit of garlic and is absolutely incredible.

I resolutely did not observe the 9th anniversary of us getting flooded in Boston. But I remembered.

Finally, we both voted early and (yay!) some of our candidates won.

So five years ago yesterday

Yes, that’s when the water main burst. Yes, I’m writing about it again. Yes, for the fifth year in a row.

I deliberately didn’t post yesterday but that day still hangs over me. No one died, and we came out OK in the end. Yet there was so much loss that day, and in the weeks afterward—loss that had nothing to do with water damage but piled on top of our soggy messes, well it was a lot to endure.

I mostly don’t miss the possessions we lost. We were able to restore the four pieces of furniture that did matter to us and we’re using them to this day. I don’t miss the clothing either, with the exception of a couple of items. I had the best winter running shirt and haven’t found anything like it since. Fashions change and today’s running gear tends to be form fitting to the skin plastering degree. My ruined winter running shirt wasn’t a tent but neither was it skin tight. I do miss that.

Occasionally I miss my high school yearbooks. Sure, high school was ages ago, but I still miss them. Plus I think my grandkids would have gotten a kick out of seeing me at that age and I don’t really have many pictures.

I’m very glad to say that I no longer flinch at the tiniest sounds of unexpected water. It’s hard for me to describe how loud and unexpected the sound of rushing water was that afternoon. The cats alerted to it first, but I heard it before it started pouring under our patio fence. At first it almost sounded like a whole lot of rushing feet. Then of course I saw it and then it filled our patio and well you know the rest of that story.

If I never ever hear the sound of those gigantic industrial blowers used to dry out flooded areas, that will be OK by me. And I’m fine with never having dry wall dust from reconstruction clogging my lungs again.

The restoration company assured us the first, second and third times we had severe water damage that fire is worse than water. I hope I never find out first hand.

Four years ago

We had what ended up being more than a little excitement what with a 31 inch water main breaking. Every year, the memories are just a bit less . . . I don't know, raw maybe? Some things haven't changed all that much though. The kitties are still very skittish around strangers (they weren't before all the reconstruction, and the unexplained sound of running water makes both Kent and me horribly nervous and uptight.

And we'll never willingly choose to live in a basement apartment or a house in a flood plain (even a 500 year one) if we can possibly avoid it. Honestly, I doubt we ever choose to live in a condo again. You're just too much at the mercy of your potentially insane neighbors.

Here are some pictures of our street the day we flooded. I thought I'd posted them before but couldn't find them in my blog so here you go.

That tiny bubble you see is where the water main broke