things are going to be running a bit slowly here today - maybe tomorrow as well. it's too soon to tell.
last evening, just as we were about to close, there was an enormous thunderstorm. it was pretty spectacular. i actually got caught in it as i was dashing back from the market - i had to get food for zeph who gets understandably cranky without his dinner. the storm came on very suddenly and was it bucketing so hard that i couldn't see much of anything except the biggest bolt of lightning i've ever seen in my life which definitely hit something on the river bank a block and a half ahead of me. it was like a tower of light and the thunderclap that came with it was so loud i could feel it in the air...
of course i was drenched to the skin when i got back to the gallery so i went upstairs to the studio, dried off and changed my clothes. when i got back downstairs to the gallery, my new manager (yesterday was her first day) said, "what's all this water on the floor...?"
at first i thought it was simply the runoff that i'd brought in with me. since it was like standing under a waterfall outside and i was well and truly soaked, there were puddles of water from my clothing all the way from the front door up the stairs to the closet in my studio.
unfortunately the puddle that had formed in the middle of the gallery floor was getting bigger and then we noticed that water was gushing in at floor level through a hole in the wall from the building next door. we moved some of the gallery furniture up into the workroom (which is about a foot higher than the gallery floor) and i figured that was the best we could do until the water stopped pouring in and i could get some heavy duty industrial mops. i said to elizabeth (the new manager) there wasn't much to be done and we'd simply have to clean up in the morning. then i heard water running in the storeroom...
the far back corner of the storeroom had suddenly turned into angel falls - there was already an inch of water on the floor there and more was pouring down. fortunately most of the things back there were on shelves off the floor but there was still quite a bit of miscellaneous stuff on the ground. we frantically moved as much of it as possible while the rain continued to fall right indoors were we could really enjoy it...
we did as much as could possibly be done and then called it a day. i shut the door and decided i'd just have to deal with the rest in the morning. i haven't gone in there yet so i'm not quite sure how serious the damage might be. frankly i'm dreading it. i can say though that if we had a sudden freeze, the gallery floor itself could easily be transformed into an indoor skating rink fun for all. i'm trying to imagine myself on the ground floor of an old venetian palazzo but frankly the visuals aren't quite working out for me. in reality what i have here is a tiny natural disaster area all to myself. terrific.
fortunately nothing upstairs in the studio got wet - it seems the roof of the photo studio next door (which is lower than mine but butts right up against my wall) couldn't handle the deluge so the excess water flooded into my building. lovely.
so it looks like we're going to be spending the better part of today mopping up and clearing out the stuff in the storeroom to either dry it off or trash it. and since there are quite a lot of orders to pack up and ship out i'm not sure how many we'll be able to send today. and i may have to cancel the clients i have scheduled tomorrow afternoon - we'll see how it goes...
having grown up on the banks of a river that got above itself now and then, i've been through a few major floods. i remember the cleanup vividly and today's experience is bringing those really unpleasant memories flooding back. (i just reread that last sentence and while i'm not crazy about puns, the phrase certainly seems appropriate.)
but since i grew up in the country, i've learned that the weather is the weather and you can't do anything about it except endure it and deal. so in a couple of minutes, i'm going to put on my waders, head for the hardward store to get a few large sized mops and then we'll get on with the day.
hopefully by saturday morning everything will be cleared up and normal again.