2000-11-10
feeling kinda
i'm really hoping that sleeping in yesterday (by which i mean all day) did the trick, and i can finally kick this stupid bronchial thing. getting wacked out on cough syrup is only really fun the first time. i am pretty partial to the CVS honey tussin, tho. it's the same ingredients as Robitussin, but it tastes like honey, not melted tires. first time i took it, i looked at the label and said 'what do you mean, i have to stop at 3 teaspoons? this stuff tastes *good*!' and i felt badly that i had to cancel on ken; for some reason, it seemed reasonable to me to think that i could both go to work and work all night at the Orpheum. what the hell was i thinking? must have been the decongestants... anyway, i bagged out on ushering for the Phillip Glass concert. there probably weren't too many beer-guzzling crazies galumphing up and down the aisles for that one, tho, so it probably worked out fine. i'll find out tonight for sure... as i've been confirmed to usher the Bob Dylan concert!!! how cool is that? he's playing the Armory tonight, which is a pretty small venue for him. i mean, he seems like the kind of person who could sell out a stadium if he wanted, but instead he's playing at BU. it's apparently the first time in 25 years he's been in Boston. to my friends with whom i was supposed to watch movies tonight: please forgive me. i'm standing you up. you'll understand, i hope. 8)
peaches was a sweetheart - i didn't find out until i got to work that i'd be ushering tonight, so i didn't have my gear with me. she took a break from painting and drove over to drop off a shirt and a flashlight so i wouldn't have to walk in the rain. thanks, cutie! and boy, was it raining hard most of the day. i stood out front of my office, waiting for her to come by, and saw a few cars nearly get lost in the puddle across the street. the rain had come down so fast that the roads weren't draining, and the puddle on the corner was closer to a small pond. the water came up to the bottom of the door on one car - and this was not a small car, either.
that got me to thinking about the photos i've seen of cars that do get stuck in flooded areas, say an underpass or a low point in the road. Storrow Drive, around here, is notorious for that. there are all these underpasses along the river, because there are so many bridges. (it's actually pretty cool on a regular day - if you drive fast enough, it feels like you're on a roller coaster. not that i've ever done that...) and at one point last year, Kenmore T station flooded with something insane like 10 feet of water during a particularly intense storm. that would put a kink in a few commutes, wouldn't it? so i got to thinking - what's the best thing to do in a situation like that? you (for some inexplicable reason) thought it was a good idea to drive thru a puddle deeper than your engine block, which is now flooded out, and the water comes halfway up your car door. staying in the car seems unsafe, because what if the water keeps getting deeper? you wouldn't want to open the door because it would flood the inside of the car; actually, it would probably be impossible to open the door because of the water pressure outside. if you had a sunroof, i suppose you could scoot out that way, but then your car would become a big rain gauge. so i guess you'd have to roll down the window and go out that way. of course, because the electric system is shot, you wouldn't be able to close the window remotely (assuming you had a remote for that kind of thing). you might be able to reach in and roll it up a little. but the inside of the car would still get wet. ohhhh... hey, if the electric system were shot, would you even be able to open the window? huh. so as i'm standing there waiting for my shirt to be delivered, i'm trying to picture myself doing any of those things, and figure out what would be the best approach, and thinking that i might just sit in the car and wait to be rescued, because i'd look too stupid trying to squirrel my way out of the half-open window. it's one of the few times i could justify having a cell phone.
heard from mom today, which was nice; i've barely been able to call in sick, let alone keep up with people the last few weeks. she's sounding more like the mom i know than she has in a while. things seem to be on the upturn now, and i'm keeping my fingers crossed that they keep going that way. dad is off working for Habitat, and thankfully it's not raining down there yet. i actually wouldn't mind if it rained here all weekend, 'cause that makes for good napping weather, and the schedule for the weekend involves lots of naps. naps, and snuggles, and maybe a movie.
