OF MONSOONS AND MEN
Really wild weather day here in soggy central Florida, very high winds and torrential rain, all day. Has finally let up a little but more is on the way. We are still in a rain deficit here so it's welcome. So it was a good day to stay home, turn a movie on or curl up with a good book.
As I said it was a good day to do that, and I am sure many people here enjoyed doing that today. Of course I didn't do that, oh no. I had to go driving my van that hates the rain about town in the middle of a freaking monsoon because I had volunteered to be the door greeter at the Ladie's Festival at Nomad today. So much for curling up.
Just FYI the festival was a collection of women that have home businesses like Avon and Pampered Chef, etc., but there were many others that had handmade clothing and many other creative things. We had a good turnout despite the rain.
It went something like this: doors were due to open at ten ayem. At 9:45, the first squall hit, blowing rain, and I swear to God himself it was blowing rain, sideways, against the front of the building and the front doors, which are your basic storefront double glass doors. With old weather stripping, so it was useless in keeping the wet outside and the dry inside. We saw the water start puddling under the doors immediately, threatening to soak and buckle our lovingly installed fairly expensive Pergo flooring. After using up the two dry towels we had on hand, a trip to our thrift store in next building over to get more towels was warranted.
So for the next 4 hours I simultaneously mopped and toweled the floors dry, opened the doors for the brave souls that had ventured out into the slop to attend our little festival, took umbrellas, offered comforting words such as "there's coffee and pastries over there", and welcomed everyone as cheerfully as possible.
Not to be outdone by the weather, Murphy and his collection of laws made an appearance in the form of making a liar out of me. There was no coffee as I had cheerfully offered to our guests because the coffee maker decided today was the day to curl up with a good book.
Yep. You guessed it already - back to the thrift store, in the driving rain, to collect whatever coffee makers we had on hand and somehow get them back to the main building while trying to keep myself dry at the same time. God decided to cut me a break and it actually stopped pouring for a few minutes so I could complete my mission.
Satisfied that the coffee making was in capable hands, I went back to my station as official umbrella taker and door mopper. Then someone mentioned that the lights in the back hallway by the ladies restroom had gone out and it was pitch black back there. Of course none of the men decided that illumination to the ladies room was an important task, their restroom was brightly lit and easily accessible, right? I volunteered that my clip lights that I use for painting could be used temporarily, they were in the storage room, right? Of course not. They had to be in my van. In the parking lot. In the rain.
Uh-huh. Back out into the squall I went with my little umbrella, unlocked my van (thank God for keyless entry) opened my storage box and, um no lights. At that point God decided He had waited on me long enough and let 'er rip. The wind almost ripped my little pink umbrella out of my now soggy hands!
I made it back inside, went to the storage room to look for my lights. The men were sitting in the lounge area with their iPads and iPhones and iWhatevers, nice and dry, sipping hot coffee and talking about the Gators game. I found my lights in the far corner of the storage room, obviously had stuff that belonged elsewhere piled on top of them. I was able to locate them by an end of a electrical cord dangling out of the box, sort of like an SOS signal or something. Once the lights were lit so that our women could go pee without running into walls I went back to my post. Time for more dry towels. The storm raged on.
A kind soul came offering brownies and coffee and although I normally don't eat brownies I gladly accepted. That was the best coffee I've ever tasted!
So after hours of mopping and door opening and coffee maker gathering and temporary illumination, our little festival came to an end. The storm, however, did not. The men finally came to action when it became apparent that the water was coming in in many places. The carpet in the main room, the worship center was soggy in many places. Shop vacs and fans were employed and a trip to the box store was made to buy bags of soil to use as rain blockers.
The festival ended at 2:00. I finally left the building at 4:30, and yes folks it was still raining. I had not had any type of protein since early morning (the few nuts in the brownie just don't count), and I was starved, so I stopped at my favorite wing place and had a couple Guiness' and some hot ones. And then I made it home. Have not even cracked a book today.
And it's still raining!
Hopefully I won't have to break out the ark to get to church in the morning. Peaceful dreams!