What did I do on my birthday, March 7th? I spent the better part of the morning sucking up water. I’ve mentioned that when it rains or when the snow melts, we’ll have a pool of water at the juncture of our walkway and our sidewalk, caused by the REPAIRS the city of Albany, NY, made to the sidewalk a decade or more ago. I dubbed it Lake 54 in honor of the NYC club Studio 54.
My wife suggested sweeping the puddle, but I said that there was way too much water. I remembered that we have a wet/dry vac in the basement, which I hadn’t used in a very long time. On the 6th of March, I decided, since I was having people over the next day, to try to drain this excess pond.
So I schlepped the machine up from the basement – no small task, because that thing is heavy – and got it outside. I found an extension cord that worked, and the machine started sucking up the excess water from the walk. When the machine cut off because it was full, I started removing the water with a three-cup plastic container. Eventually, when the water level was low enough, I could tip the device over into the big snow bank in the yard.
Hospitality
This exercise reminded me of something that is quite obvious: water is heavy. Twelve gallons of water are definitely heavy. I did that exercise a couple of times on the 6th.
One other thing: the machine is LOUD. The crossing guard at the nearby school, a few dozen meters away, glared in my direction. Hey, I want our sidewalk to be dry for the schoolkids, too.
When I looked out on the 7th, it looked just as bad. So I did it two more times on my birthday, but I decided to dump the excess water in the nearest sewer. That meant walking the device, which rather reminds me of R2D2, two houses away.
I got rid of all that water because my friends were coming over for my hearts game, bringing food and beverages. We told lots of stories, some of which involved Scotland and/or getting older, and had a wonderful time.
I’d lost every one of the four or five games I played except the last, and it’s only because of a quirky house rule that allows someone who gets exactly to 100 to go back to zero. I had 81 points and got 19.
But as people were leaving, the same pond returned. It was particularly troubling to me because one of my friends broke her ankle and was wearing a boot, which needed to stay DRY.
Still, my work apparently had its beneficial benefit The next morning, Lake 54 was almost totally dry and remained dry even as other people’s walks were puddling. So I feel like the nearly 50 gallons I removed from my sidewalk were ultimately beneficial.
Two sources of Irish heritage intrigue me. The African American Irish Diaspora Network (AAIDN
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