My Mood Matches the Weather

Flood Warning

According to weather.com, Jersey is in for another 2 - 6 inches of rain.

It wasn't until this past Thursday that Main Street in Bound Brook was open. Poor Bound Brook! Or as Xman used to call it, Un-Bound Brook. Bound Brook, Elizabeth, and Wayne always get the worst of it. People died in Bound Brook during Hurricane Floyd. Buildings that were one story underwater caught fire and burned down to the water line.

My favorite place on earth at the time, the Palmyra Tea Room, was flooded out and the owners never had the money to start again.

The Army Corps of Engineers did three parts of a four part project, so Bound Brook still floods and it's going to flood again.

I hope that all it means for me is that I'll have to find a different route to work, because right now my trip takes me along two rivers that always flood. I hope there isn't a recurrence of Lake Becs, but I have a feeling there will be.

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Google'll Getchya If Ya Don't Watch Out

I googled someone's nom de net today and found several unpleasant surprises. There's nothing quite like getting gut-punched on a peaceful Sunday afternoon. I don't have the energy or inclination to cry, but I do feel like someone took my guts out, unwound them, then stuffed them back in.

Even though I've suspected this for awhile, it still hurts.

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Eat This, You'll Feel Better

The other day, I thought, all I have at home is poor people's food. Frozen meaty bits that I should cook up. Yesterday, I got yet more poor people's food. Today, I'm cooking it up. I planned a menu for this week, hoping to avoid the expense of the cafeteria. And the torrential rain coming during the next couple of days.

I had broccoli-cheddar soup for lunch. I'm baking brownies right now and I'm getting ready to go put a corned beef brisket in the pot. After that, I'm chopping up the poor people's fruit into a nice, handy, easy to pack up fruit salad.

And I do feel a little better after the soup.

Ah, the brownies are done.

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Canceled Due to Inclement Weather

No long ride this week. No short rides until the rain goes away on Wednesday. And now, of course, I kind of miss it.

I need to find consolation in something today, even if it's whatever I can dig up on Netflix or Hulu. I had been watching "Rescue Me", but that will not serve to rescue me from the gut punch I got today.

Amazingly Instant Karma

The morning when I read about the Peruvian earthquake, I thought, good, there need to be fewer Peruvians in the world. In Jersey, they are everywhere and seem to bring with them nothing good, unless you like reading headlines about dog fights and bar brawls and drug sales.

Then I got myself ready for work.

My friend JB needs a job. He's a great guy. I met him at Former Fezziwig Co. and he was one of the few people I've managed to connect with.

A couple of years ago, he moved himself and his family to a northern tundra to work at a job that greatly advanced his career, only to have been bounced a month ago.

I knew he had an interview that day, so I stopped in at St. Fatty's to do a little God-bothering.

There were two other people in the church - a woman in the front who was lolling over the pews and sitting as if she was waiting for a bus.

The other was a woman in the back, with a handkerchief in her hands. She was weeping softly, but sometimes I heard her stop and gulp a little.

I went up front, shoved a dollar in the candlebox, lit a candle, and bothered God for about five minutes.

On my way out, I passed the crying woman again. I walked into the pew where she was half-kneeling. She still had the hanky in her hand, over her face.

I touched her shoulder. "Are you okay?" I asked.

She looked up, eyes red and bleary. In barely-accented English, she said, "I'm okay, I'm okay. But my mother and husband - they're in Peru and I haven't heard from them." She started crying again.

I sat next to her for a few minutes and without knowing it, had taken her hand. With my other hand, I patted her shoulder.

She sniffed, dried her eyes. "I'm going to be okay. Really. As soon as I hear from them. I know they have to be all right."

I nodded and stood.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Becs."

"I'm Maria."

I wished her and her family well, then left to get in my car to go to work.

Ashamed of myself? You bet. Learned a lesson? Oh yeah.