A Snake, A Shower … Any More Surprises?

It’s been raining a lot here lately. It’s been raining so that much part of the river was sandbagged over the weekend. It’s been raining for so many days in a row that I started to think I was living in a rainforest. Well, a rainforest without the trees … oh, and it’s not exactly warm here considering we had the fireplace going four days ago … and we don’t have any tropical birds or monkeys or giant insects … but it HAS been raining a lot here lately.

During this rainy weather I took a couple of days off while my Dad was here visiting. This morning I went back to work. I walked into the office, headed toward my cubicle and saw this:

When I got to my cubicle I saw this:

You might think I was surprised, but I wasn’t. I have watched the wet spots on the ceiling tiles above me grow for many, many months. Every now and then some of us would pop our heads up out of our cubes and participate in a discussion about the wet spots.

“Do you think that spot is bigger? I think it’s bigger. I’m not sure if that one over there is bigger but I’m pretty sure that’s a new spot. We should draw a circle around them so we know if they’re growing. If we can prove they’re growing maybe somebody will believe us when we say the roof is still leaking and fix it.” I was pretty sure nothing was going to get fixed until the whole ceiling fell in. My only hope was that I wouldn’t be sitting at my computer when it happened. It didn’t completely fall in, but I wasn’t here when the bulging and cracking tiles reached the point of no return, so I guess I got my wish.

The motto for this office seems to be “Why Fix Something Before It’s An Emergency?” When people complained about dead bug body parts falling out of the ceiling vents a few years ago (I had so many on my counter one day I could write my name in them) nothing was done about it. I even started collecting those little bug bits and pieces.

I’d sit at my computer dreaming about having the nerve to sprinkle them all over the desk of WhoeverIsInChargeButWon’tDoAnythingAboutAnyBuildingProblems. It’s probably a good thing I never got up the nerve ... but boy……..what a rush of in-your-face-power that would have been ... even if I wasn't positive which desk I should pour them on.  I suppose we, the lowly worker bees, could have waited until the situation was dire and were all suffering from clogged-bug-lung. Maybe something would have been done then. But we were impatient. We “solved” the problem by stuffing the vents with furnace filter stuff. If that filter stuff is ever removed it’ll be a waterfall of bug parts and pieces. There will be bits up the nose, in your eyes, and floating through the air. I don’t want to be there that day either.

Anyway, since I neither saw nor heard any dripping water, my first action of the day (even before my first cup of coffee!) was to climb up on my countertop and pull off the plastic. Then I figured as long as everything had been moved I may as well clean the piles of dirt and surprise! bug parts that were on my window sill, so I climbed back up. After everything was nice and clean and had I started putting things back in their places, I noticed drips hit the counter so I was back up on the countertop to tape plastic over the hole.

After I had put all my belongings back in their places, I heard drops hitting the counter -- again. So I crawled back up once again to make sure all the edges of the plastic garbage bag were sealed with tape. By then I was an expert at climbing up and down from my counter so I figured I may as well grab a nice big black magic marker, climb up again and draw circles around the water stains (plus a few new ones) even though now we didn’t really need proof that they were expanding.

About an hour and a half later I finally poured my first cup of coffee and sat down to work.  Mid-morning, to my amazement and surprise, two guys actually showed up, climbed up onto the roof and walked around for a while.

All the walking around they did shifted the delicate water-dripping balance and it started again. I figured five times up on my countertop in one day was enough so I decided precisely placed garbage cans would just have to do. Then they left. Nobody ever came to tell me if they found the leak, fixed the leak, are coming back, or just gave up. To quote Gomer Pyle “sur-prise, sur-prise”. In the meantime, I spent my day listening to the slow plop … plop … plop of water hitting a plastic bag intermixed with the softer drip … drip … drip of water landing in a garbage can.

When I left at the end of the day I did this.

 Because in the skies there were these.

Maybe that furnace filter stuff up in the ceiling vent will let go tonight and it will be like a rainforest....insect parts all glued together into monster bugs, stuck to ceiling tiles ... floating down the hall ... into the warehouse ... picking up bull snakes along the way ...◦

A Snake, A Shower … Any More Surprises?

Why Did the Turtle Cross the Road?

Friday afternoon as we were following Leslie, Ryan and grandkids on our way to meet Abby for a South Dakota camping trip, I started thinking about how it had been at least 15 years since we had camped with both girls at the same time. All at once it occurred to me that with Abby moving to Ecuador in January, this was probably going to be our last family camping trip. I was feeling sad and depressed that I'd probably never get to camp with both girls together again. All the memories of those early camping trips filled my head. Memories like Leslie's disappointment that Yellowstone Park didn't have swings and a slide, or Abby sitting patiently with bread on her head hoping a bird would eat it. Then I remembered that at one point during the teenage years, after one of those "wonderful" family outings, Dean and I looked at each other and said, "why are we doing this? Do we enjoy torturing ourselves?" All at once a final family outing didn't seem like such a sad event. But now I'm back home and this camping trip was better than great and I want to have more, but I'm sure it was our last with everybody, and once again I'm feeling sad and nostalgic.

Once we all arrived at the campsite the first order of business was to set up camp. For Leslie and Ryan that meant doing whatever you do to get a popup camper ready for occupancy. For Dean and I that meant putting up our tent. However, since it was raining, and tents are better put up in dry weather, some of us sat in the car watching while the camper was prepared and then sat inside the camper while the awning was set up. I admit to being a tent-snob and make no excuses for my belief that "camping in a trailer is not camping". However, I'm embarassed to say that it was me who sat in the camper as the awning was set up and sat in the camper until the rain stopped so we could put up our tent, but really, that's not alot different than sitting in your car while you wait for the rain to stop is it?



It seems Dean's membership in the Safety Committee at work didn't carry over into the real world



but the awning was erected, the camper was ready, the rain stopped and we put up our tent.



Once our weekend homes were ready we moved on to the picnic table shelter. This was a relic from the 80s that Leslie and Ryan brought along which required much reading of instructions and scratching of heads. By the end of the weekend we all decided it might have worked better if the openings had faced the benches. And if the purpose truly was to keep insects out, the big bumblebee and other flying bugs who joined us didn't get the word.







We actually saw a bit of sun Saturday morning



and then took a perfectly timed tour of Wind Cave which lasted just long enough to avoid the afternoon rain.



At one point during the tour Myra, now all of four years old, got going a bit too fast down one of the narrow, sloping walkways and in the interest of preventing a nose-dive with ensuing sobbing inside a cave filled with strangers I asked her to slow down. She stopped, looked down at her feet and said, "Feet! Stop running!"

It was a long day for some of us.





Saturday night we went to the fireworks display in Custer. We managed to find a spot approximately 100 yards away from the staging area and we were so close to the fireworks that not only could we hear them explode but we could feel the ground vibrate. During one series of explosions I felt like I was on the Starship Enterprise. "Warp drive, please Mr. Sulu".









Almost as entertaining as the fireworks was the drive back to camp afterwards. First we sat in our car, one of hundreds of other cars, engines running, going literally nowhere. Ryan and Leslie were ahead and finally creeped ahead far enough to take a left into an alley that Ryan thought would be a way out of the gridlock. Not to be left behind, Dean followed. The alley went up a steep hill and as we were nearing the top Leslie got out of their truck, came over to our car window and said, "this is a steep hill and Ryan needs some sp..." next thing you know gravel is flying, tires are spinning, and Leslie is running toward their white pickup. The pickup began moving faster, reached the top of the hill and turned the corner and we watched as Leslie kicked it up a notch running for all she was worth. The passenger door was open and I had visions of my daughter diving into the truck, legs hanging out the door as it continued moving. Fortunately, once Ryan reached the street he stopped and she safely got into her seat.

One afternoon as we walked back to camp from the lake Leslie and I kept hearing squeaking. It was very loud and persistent squeaking. We searched for a bird's nest and just as we were about to give up a woodpecker flew over to a tree and fed the babies that were hidden inside. Those babies never stopped squeaking/chirping the whole time we watched. It must have been very annoying for the parent to bring the food and still hear persistent complaining.



We also saw deer, buffalo, fish, heron, and a poodle. I mention the poodle because I was informed by my daughters that when the air is humid my hair curls up like a poodle. Later, when another camper walked by with an honest to goodness poodle I questioned their judgement but they wouldn't back down.




All in all we had great food, great company, great conversation, great smells and sounds and views and a terrific weekend.






Finally, why does the turtle cross the road? I don't know but I can tell you that he does. On the road to the campground, as you pass by the lake there is a sign that reads, "Caution, Turtle Crossing." One afternoon as we were driving on that road we actually saw a turtle who was just beginning that dangerous journey across the road. I hope he made it.◦

Why Did the Turtle Cross the Road?