A Flood? No Way

When we went to bed last night it wasn't raining, so we left our window open a little bit. We like a cool room for sleeping, and since we haven't shed the heavy wool blanket on our bed (which is heavenly on cold, cold nights) we have been leaving our window open to let in fresh, cool air.

During the night it started to rain, and even with ear plugs in I remember waking enough to hear the rain pelting against our window which is right above our heads. Wow, it was really a driving rain storm. While turning over one time, Rich's hand hit the curtain --- which was wet!! So he shut the window. Little did we know what was happening in the front room.

At 6:00 when we got up, we found a flood in the living room. Our balcony doors face the same direction as our bedroom window and water had been coming in under the doors. The kitchen area had water as well. That door didn't surprise us, however, because we can see daylight at the bottom of it. We figured that the storm must have been coming off the bay in a horizontal direction and hitting the East side of our apartment building at full force.

The water reached half of our area rug and saturated two throw rugs that are in front of the doors. The curtain was wet as well with dirty rain water. I knew it would dry ugly if I didn't do something to wash it out. So I took a pitcher of clean water and poured it over the bottom of the curtain into a bucket. It actually looks pretty good. There is a faint water line which isn't too visible. It dried pretty evenly and no dirty spots are evident. So glad!!

We draped our area rug over our counter and put a rag on the floor where the water would drip off the rug. It seems to be drying nicely too. The easiest thing was washing the throw rugs in the washing machine.

Silvio, the apartment fix it man, came into the office this morning, so we were able to tell him of the leaks and where the water was entering. He didn't seem surprised about the kitchen door, but did about the balcony doors. He said he would come by to look at it.

So right after the alarm and before any showers, we were mopping up unwanted water. Our apartment smelled wet and kind of musty when we left for the office, but it wasn't too bad when we came home. We think other people had problems too, because upon entering the building after work, the whole place smelled damp like our apartment did this morning. Thank heavens for tile floors. They clean up nicely and are not hard to maintain.

Monday at the office was really busy for all of us. Elder Nelson was busy training Elder Coria, and Elder Paz was busy on the phone doing what he does with apartment contracts. Not being able to understand what is being said in either situation leaves me in the dark a lot. I just go about my work and make sure I complete what is before me in a given day.

This round of zone conferences is actually interviews without the conference, so two are being held in one day. So that requires getting all the supplies, mail, and everything ready for two zones at once. It is a large stack of stuff to load into the President's van. This will go on all week for me.

Elder Coria, in the middle, is the youngest of four children. He has three older sisters. After his mission, he wants to get some type of a scholarship available for Latinos. He wants to go to BYU Hawaii. He has been very conscientious in trying to learn his responsibilities. He is learning English, but doesn't know it as well as Elder Paz. Elder Paz studies all the time. He does very well. We enjoy all these elders.

Today I spoke with Elder Clegg and he asked when we would be able to see him before he goes home. I told him probably on November 4th at the mission home. Then he asked if he and his companion could spend the night at our apartment the night before he goes home, if the President would give permission. I told him we would be thrilled to have him. He is going to ask the President this Friday when he meets with him for the interviews. We aren't sure if permission will be given, but it's worth a try. It would be a fun "send off" time together.

So far no rain tonight. That was a weird storm.