On Sunday night, Toronto was hit by a freak thunder and lighting storm. I guess it wasn't really "freak". It's been like this all summer. You'll be strolling along, enjoying some warmth from the sunshine when you suddenly feel as though someone has snuck up behind you and is peeking over your shoulder. You turn around with a slight feeling of dread boiling in your tummy and see a massive, pitch-black cloud oozing along the horizon. Your instinct is to run, knowing the encroaching rain will soak you to the bone in mere seconds. Your instinct is correct - Run! Run!
So yes, we've been having a lot of these types of weather "events" this summer and people are generally fed up and disappointed in the Toronto Summer of 2009.
On Sunday night, the pyrotechnics were extra spectacular. I have always loved thunder and lightning storms. I've found the streaks and flashes of light beautiful and the roars of thunder fun-scary (not scary-scary if you know what I mean.) The fun goes out of it when your building gets hit and you are facing your partner, the realization dawning on you that that ringing in your ears is not from the thunder, but from the fire alarm that is going off in your hallways.
My partner and I are, unfortunately, the superintendents of our apartment building. While the upside is that we live for free, the downside is that we live with the problems of other people on a regular basis and their clogged sinks become our clogged sinks. We have been doing it for just over four years and the glamour wore off about two years ago. We're sick of it but hope to buy a house this year and can't bring ourselves to give it up while trying to save.
There are 24 units in the building and most of the tenants are pretty good. However, when faced with the threat of fire, they can be a pain in the ass. They look to you to be calm but it's hard to remain so when they're asking you if they should go to the front door or back door while you're running up and down the hallways at top speed searching for fire.
Luckily, there was none to be found. The damage it did cause, however, was that it fried our fire alarm, (so we couldn't shut it off) our entryway buzzer and the modems of several people in the building. The woe goes on. We're doing our best to rectify the situation but the post office has suspended our mail delivery until we fix it and we have no internet at home. It could be worse, and I'm thankful that it's not.
When things like that happen, you realize just how unprepared you are for emergencies. We have two cats - they are big fellas - we have one cat crate - it is small. We can barely stuff one of them in there when we have to take them to the vet. Where do we store the one, small crate? In the basement storage locker. So where would the boys be going if we had to evacuate them? Stuffed into a backpack, a Pottery Barn bag (we don't have a lot of extra plastic ones in the T.Dot since they introduced the ridiculous rule that we have to pay 5 cents for every plastic bag we request at any store or perhaps a Telus shopping bag with a big meerkat on it? None of these are very dignified modes of transport for our most prized and beloved possessions.
Some planning will be done this week. I have vowed to go buy a bigger cat crate that we will store in the apartment along with the one we will retreive from the basement. We will cut an extra set of keys that we will have handy in case one of us can't find ours (yes. We spent an inordinate amount of time tearing apart the apartment when we realized I didn't have a key to the fire alarm room and D had lost his keys). We will, hopefully, be better prepared if it happens again.
Hopefully, lightning won't strike twice.
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