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Aug. 3rd, 2015 03:58 pm
Coming down
Nothing worked out according to plan yesterday and it was a great day all the same.
I crammed all chores into Saturday in order to have the whole day free. Originally, Fig was supposed to stop by around 10:30 to drop off some plants and we'd go out to brunch after. But as our romp at Touché began to stretch later into the wee hours, "10:30" became "11:30" became "I'll call you". Ultimately, he made it by quarter after 11, but with everything he wanted to get done still brunch had to give way.
My plans for the afternoon involved walking the sand with Alex the Great, but we hadn't gone beyond "call you after brunch". So I called, found him free, and arranged to meet him for lunch at 1. I don't think I'd seen him in over a year, and it was good to catch up. He mentioned something in passing about how sorry he was to see Athena's store close and when I told him he'd reopened only a few blocks away, he insisted we pay a visit (something the GWO and I had attempted two weeks before only to find the place closed).
Athena was his usual high wattage self, happy to see both of us. His new shop is several times smaller than the old one, so the crush is somewhat overwhelming; literally every time I turned around, I would notice something I hadn't before. When the customers weren't looking, he'd be dancing in the shop. An hour flew by, and about the time I thought I should be moving on if I wanted to make it to the beach for prime sunning and socialising hours, I noticed that the sky had gone suddenly dark.
Alex decided to skitter on home, but I thought I'd be better off waiting out the storm in the shop. It poured for about half an hour while Athena and I chatted candidly. We also started talking business, since he had a table for sale that looked like it fit our needs. In fact,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu had left the house a little before me with the goal of working his way through the antiques shops on Broadway and part of the reason I lingered was the outside possibility that he'd reach us before turning back. It took a while to contact him, and when I did I wasn't surprised to find that he was already home.
He liked the piece, though, and I bought it. Athena said he's drop it by after close, so with the sun out again there was, in theory, no reason why I couldn't continue with my plans. But given the time at which the storm cell cleared the beach, I figured most of the boys would've just moved on to their evening destinations already, thus undermining any reason to go. And I was enjoying the attention from the gleeful Greek, who I'd never had a chance to chat with alone before nor for so long. At some point, Coleman came along and bantering with him made me feel better about excluding him from cocktails the night before.
When closing time finally did roll around and Athena dropped me by the house, I was stunned to see the destruction. The downpour down in Edgewater was a powerful microburst just over the border in Rogers Park. There was an uprooted tree leaning against a brownstone on our street and it seemed every larger maple or ash had lost a limb or two--including, of course, the ones on our corner. After dinner, I went out with the pruners and hacked one down enough that I was at least able to get it off the sidewalk, but there's more work to be done tonight.
It was while I was doing this that I learned about the damage one block over. Apparently, an SUV had been in motion when a branch struck the driver's side of the windshield and crystalised it. In any case, it was jackknifed in the middle of the street between two parked cars, both of which were smothered in fallen branches. When the second storm hit around 10:30, I saw a Streets & San truck headed that way, but as of this morning nothing had been removed.
Cleaning up the mess is going to take a while. Coming in to work this morning, I found a tree had fallen across Arthur between Magnolia and Lakewood, completely blocking through traffic. Just in the minute or two it took me to walk by, I saw two cars turn in, realise their error, and turn around. As I was crossing, a woman in an SUV at the corner asked if the street was obstructed and I told her there was no way she was going to be able to get through.
By comparison, damage seems modest up here--nothing like that microburst that struck the south meadow a few years back. There was one big old oak with rot in the trunk that came down near the outer fence. Workman were already on the scene as I came in this morning making quick work of it. I plan to take a stroll now and see if the parts to the north of us fared as well.
I crammed all chores into Saturday in order to have the whole day free. Originally, Fig was supposed to stop by around 10:30 to drop off some plants and we'd go out to brunch after. But as our romp at Touché began to stretch later into the wee hours, "10:30" became "11:30" became "I'll call you". Ultimately, he made it by quarter after 11, but with everything he wanted to get done still brunch had to give way.
My plans for the afternoon involved walking the sand with Alex the Great, but we hadn't gone beyond "call you after brunch". So I called, found him free, and arranged to meet him for lunch at 1. I don't think I'd seen him in over a year, and it was good to catch up. He mentioned something in passing about how sorry he was to see Athena's store close and when I told him he'd reopened only a few blocks away, he insisted we pay a visit (something the GWO and I had attempted two weeks before only to find the place closed).
Athena was his usual high wattage self, happy to see both of us. His new shop is several times smaller than the old one, so the crush is somewhat overwhelming; literally every time I turned around, I would notice something I hadn't before. When the customers weren't looking, he'd be dancing in the shop. An hour flew by, and about the time I thought I should be moving on if I wanted to make it to the beach for prime sunning and socialising hours, I noticed that the sky had gone suddenly dark.
Alex decided to skitter on home, but I thought I'd be better off waiting out the storm in the shop. It poured for about half an hour while Athena and I chatted candidly. We also started talking business, since he had a table for sale that looked like it fit our needs. In fact,
monshu had left the house a little before me with the goal of working his way through the antiques shops on Broadway and part of the reason I lingered was the outside possibility that he'd reach us before turning back. It took a while to contact him, and when I did I wasn't surprised to find that he was already home.He liked the piece, though, and I bought it. Athena said he's drop it by after close, so with the sun out again there was, in theory, no reason why I couldn't continue with my plans. But given the time at which the storm cell cleared the beach, I figured most of the boys would've just moved on to their evening destinations already, thus undermining any reason to go. And I was enjoying the attention from the gleeful Greek, who I'd never had a chance to chat with alone before nor for so long. At some point, Coleman came along and bantering with him made me feel better about excluding him from cocktails the night before.
When closing time finally did roll around and Athena dropped me by the house, I was stunned to see the destruction. The downpour down in Edgewater was a powerful microburst just over the border in Rogers Park. There was an uprooted tree leaning against a brownstone on our street and it seemed every larger maple or ash had lost a limb or two--including, of course, the ones on our corner. After dinner, I went out with the pruners and hacked one down enough that I was at least able to get it off the sidewalk, but there's more work to be done tonight.
It was while I was doing this that I learned about the damage one block over. Apparently, an SUV had been in motion when a branch struck the driver's side of the windshield and crystalised it. In any case, it was jackknifed in the middle of the street between two parked cars, both of which were smothered in fallen branches. When the second storm hit around 10:30, I saw a Streets & San truck headed that way, but as of this morning nothing had been removed.
Cleaning up the mess is going to take a while. Coming in to work this morning, I found a tree had fallen across Arthur between Magnolia and Lakewood, completely blocking through traffic. Just in the minute or two it took me to walk by, I saw two cars turn in, realise their error, and turn around. As I was crossing, a woman in an SUV at the corner asked if the street was obstructed and I told her there was no way she was going to be able to get through.
By comparison, damage seems modest up here--nothing like that microburst that struck the south meadow a few years back. There was one big old oak with rot in the trunk that came down near the outer fence. Workman were already on the scene as I came in this morning making quick work of it. I plan to take a stroll now and see if the parts to the north of us fared as well.