random thoughts – Day 2,191 (Tuesday) – mysteries

The rain of Monday night arrived with a vengeance, accompanied by some super-duper crazy wind. The wind howled and the rain battered the house from all directions. At 1:00 a.m., I was still awake, partly due to the noisy weather and partly because I was racing to finish reading a book. There was a loud and heavy noise outside. And again. It seemed like something had crashed into the house.

I got out of bed and lowered the living room shade cautiously, not sure what to expect, but mentally assessing where the home insurance paperwork is located. The wind had thrown open the full glass panel storm door and was bashing it into the metal railing on the front landing. Luckily, the door didn’t seem damaged and I wrestled it closed and locked it. 

Mysterious cracks? Tunnels?

This morning, I scanned the yard with the aid of daylight. There were pieces of broken plastic skirting in the yard, but that was the only evidence of the storm visible from the window. The snow has melted away and there are strange, curving crack-like marks visible in the side yard and behind the house. It looks like earthly varicose veins or a tunnel network just below and along the surface of the yard. Weird.

Once dressed, I went outside and walked around the house to check things out. There were two pieces of broken skirting on the front lawn and another wedged in the rhododendron. The skirting didn’t come off my house, so it's a mystery whose house it blew in from.

Some house is missing some parts.

The dryer has been not doing its job very well lately, and I checked out the vent at the back of the house. Someone on Facebook mentioned recently that their dryer vent had been plugged up due to the height of the snow. I think the same thing happened to mine because 1) the snow was very high against the back of the house, especially after the roof was cleared off; 2) the dryer vent cap is not very high off the ground; and 3) the vent opening is currently packed with soggy lint pressing against the screen. 

Of course, it isn’t as simple as taking the screen off and pulling out the lint. The latches are broken and the screen has been securely wired onto the vent outlet at four points with what is now some crusty wire. It might be wise for me to visit the hardware store armed with a photo of the existing vent and get a whole new exterior piece before I start monkeying around with it.

Dance class tonight had mysteries and surprises. Usually when we arrive at the rental space, there are a few tables and a varying number of chairs (from a couple to a lot) to be moved out of the way so we can dance. Tonight, there were six tables arranged in the center of the floor and set with chairs. A series of ropes above the floor held crepe paper that had been draped in twisted around the ropes and hung low enough that our tallest dancers hit it when our arms were extended.

Festive!

Additional festive ambiance was provided by plastic panels printed with flamingos and palm trees that were attached to some divider panels with push pins. It was all very neat, like someone went to some effort to set up for an event and someone is going to be surprised the next time they visit the room because we had to move all the tables and chairs out of the way because there was no possible way to dance around it. There may have been a communication gap concerning the precious nugget of info that we rent the space every Tuesday night. Oopsie. At least the furniture moving was an extra workout.