That Sinking Feeling
When I look back on this year, the word I'm likely to use to sum it up is "challenging." (Well, that's the word I'll be able to use in polite company...)
The scene shop for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre where both Robb and I worked burned to the ground this past summer...
Robb's accident...
And then, last night, a water main burst and a sink hole opened up under the Berkeley Repertory Theatre's new shop.
That muddy area is the paint shop, which was undermined by the sink hole. The East Bay Municipal Utilities District will pay to have this repaired, but -- eeesh --what a setback and what a mess! (At least I'll be getting a new carpet for my office...)
I'm halfway expecting either an earthquake or a plague of locusts, next.
Later...
I just got back from touring the shop (we're not actually working there, yet) and EBMUD has been working like crazy all day. The bulk of the water has been squeegee'd out, and the circa 1939 water main was shut off. The undermining of the building is really extensive. From what we saw, the building is only sitting on a foundation of gravel and seashells. One of our supporting columns has no ground under it at all.
Bruce, who has to deal with all this has a great sense of humor about the whole thing. It seems like he has Mozart's Magic Flute, which allows him to pass through ordeals of fire and water unscathed.
Later, Still
Really, the sink hole is just an annoyance, nothing terribly dire. If anything, it has been bringing out the gallows humor in everyone. The city will pay for the damages. Nobody got hurt, Nothing precious was destroyed.
So why the insomnia, Lisa?
Comments
O.K., I've been told that there is an essential "rule of threes" in the universe, and my own experience has proven that to be true. So, think of this as the third in the series of "challenges" this year. Now we can all look forward to three glorious surprising gifts of unsolicited good luck for you two.
Pardon my pollyannish attitude, but I know:
"It will all be FANTASTIC in the end, and if it's not FANTASTIC, then it's not the end!"
Love you
Cling to your friends and each other.
Hang in there!
Ginasue
Of course, maybe the fire burned down a building that otherwise might have poisoned you over time with lead paint. And maybe you will find some hidden oil well or Blackbeards buried treasure in that big sinkhole. Weird things like that have been known to happen. Not to me, but maybe to you.
You could always just fill up the sink hole with some of those big pinecones you feature in some of your latest photos. And maybe now the hole will get fixed before the next earthquake comes by and sucks you down into some wierd land of the leprachauns.
-Annalisa and Gary
You were not in the burning shop, or stuck in the sink hole, and Robb is getting better . . .
Ok, how many Pollyanna-type friends do you have, anyway??
love
ter