It was a dark and stormy night …

January 27, 2010 by kim.

Thus began the tale of Paul Clifford (and so many stories that Snoopy would start to write on his trusty typewriter), and hence begins the tale of Chris, Kim, and the Creaky Building.

Once upon a time, there lived a handsome fellow, his beautiful wife, and their darling cat …

Oh, who am I kidding? Let’s get on with it.

It was stormy Sunday night. REALLY stormy. Not just here, but my sources (friends) in Kansas City and Greensboro tell me that the storm had reached their neck of the woods, too.

It was a storm like we had never experienced before. Wind. Rain. More wind …

Scary, huh?

We’ve experienced such things as wind and rain before, but this was different. This storm had wind gusts hitting at least 55mph, and while that might not be the worst (I’m sure those living through tornadoes and hurricanes can attest to that), it was pretty scary to us living here on the 15th floor of a rickety old high-rise.

Our building CRE..A…K…S… when the wind blows strong. When it’s really strong, it also sways a bit. A bit, meaning, you can actually feel it. And, you can see it. It is hard to capture on video, but here is the best I could do. What you are about to see is how our outside bedroom wall (which is made up mostly of glass) bows in when the wind blows from the southeast. The behemoth you are looking at is our big old hotel-like heater/AC unit:

That is just not right.

Many thoughts raced through our minds during the completely sleepless night and the following windy day. One thought in particular was that the windows were going to shatter and that we’d be sucked out into Jersey. Nothing like imagining the worst, right? We (Chris) were starting to get pretty nervous. Walls should not bow in like that unless you live in a cardboard box. I don’t think we do. At least, the floors seem solid. Anyway, it was time to batten down the hatches the best we could.

Chris had the idea of putting the kitty perch next to the heater and pushing the bed up to it to make it more secure. He put weights on the other side of the bed to make sure it didn’t move, and pulled our handy dandy (dusty) Total Gym over to help support the door brace he jammed up under the window. He put a couple of weights on it, too, for good measure. Now we were all set and ready for anything (ha ha). We had our contingency plan in place (in the event of windows breaking and rain pouring in, put everything we can fit from the bedroom into the bedroom closet and start looking for a new apartment), and were ready for anything that nature could throw at us.

Then, the wind stopped.

That was unnerving. Now I was able to imagine what people must experience when the eye of a hurricane passes through. The quiet is glorious, but you just know the other shoe is going to drop.

When the wind picked up again, we (I) felt a little better. At least I knew what was going on. Weird, I know. Knowing there was nothing more to do, we went about our day catching leaks that sprang up and waited out the storm.

Finally, when we were just starting to get used to it, the wind and rain stopped completely and the sun came out! Hooray!

Their life back to normal, the handsome fellow, beautiful wife, and darling cat walked hand in hand (and paw) into the gorgeous golden sunset, excited to experience yet another glorious day …

The End!

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