Walking in the rain with a screwdriver
Shipoke is up late tonight. The streets of the neighborhood are crowded with moving vans. Some people are moving their furniture into storage, which is probably a good idea if you can still find a mover who can do it for you. Flood insurance supposedly pays up to a thousand dollars to get your belongings out of harm's way. Mike, my neighbor, paid $600 plus tips to have his furniture hauled away. He paid double time. As Mike acknowledged, it's a gamble. If no flood occurs, he won't get any of that back. But I don't think he has much to worry about.
Around 11 p.m., I mixed myself a screwdriver and, like Lt. Henry, went for a walk in the rain. I thought about using an umbrella, but decided to let the rain wash away away whatever sins led to this disaster. Or at least the sweat I worked up on a hundred or so trips to the basement and up to the second floor with our stuff. The rain felt good. So did the screwdriver.
The Shipoke bad timing award goes to a new neighbor across Conoy Street, who just moved into his house. The Shipoke good timing but just barely award goes to Louise and Chris, who picked today to move out of the neighborhood to Baltimore. Chris works for Channel 21, and has a new job at one of the Baltimore stations. Louise was standing on her stoop watching the movers load the van, quite relieved to be exiting ahead of the flood waters. I envied her.