Flooding

This weekend has been a flood of emotions, first a bad ay with my mother, which left me wondering if I was going to the Nifty Fifty party at all, or should stay home in case she had to be taken to the ER (I decided with the Atria person, that I would go, but she had my cell phone number and Jeri's and would call if they were taking her to the ER and I'd come back.  We did not receive a call.)  I left town with a flood of emotions about that.

And then there was the flood of emotions I always feel when we get together with the Pinata People. All those memories, good and sad.  Remembering the folks who are no longer here, rejoicing in the ones who are.  Watching each of us in Generation 1 as our bodies slowly begin to break down, looking at the adult of Generation 2 and their children and remembering when we were those guys, and the kids of Generation 3 as they continue to learn about this special group, and each other.  Wishing that Father Quinn, who is responsible for this all, were here to see what his counsel has wrought!

And then today there is the flood of family emotion, with Alice and Joe driving up from Santa Barbaa, Norm and Olivia driving from Petaluma, all meeting here to see Jeri and Phil before they return to Boston.

But before that flood could take place, there was the real flood in our kitchen.  It happened so quickly and was so suddenly all-encompassing that I didn't even think to take a picture.

I was standing in the kitchen making a cup of coffee when I heard water running  I thought I had left the tap on, but no.  It wasn't coming from there.  Then I looked at the door to the laundry room and was water pouring down the door and soon, I felt water on my arm, as it poured out of the light fixture over the sink.

Walt ran upstairs to discover that the upstairs toilet had overflowed and the floor was covered with water.  Fortunately, we still have a big bag of towels left over from our puppy fostering days and I quickly soaked all of them while Walt used all of the towels upstairs to mop up the mess there.  He got the toilet to stop running, but we haven't investigated what we need to do to keep it from happening again.

We spent time going through all the things that had been soaked and throwing away food awash in "diaper rash water" (as it is known in Pinata circles).

We were about finished when the family arrived.  Jeri and Phil were out, but we sat and talked  Walt showed Norm a photo book on Hawaii, which has photos from around the area where they lived for several years.

Then Norm presented his own treasure, a vintage photo he had found of their great-great grandfather.  Norm has always wanted to know where the "Norm" came from and his mother could never remember, only that his father had named him, but unearthing some old daguerreotypes he discovered one labeled "Norman Eldred."

While they were talking about their newly discovered great-grandfather, the others (Alice, Olivia and Joe) were looking through an old book of Walt's grandmother's, telling the story of their father, from birth to high school graduation, and enjoying the photos in it.  Alice has started getting interested in the family history and this book was a treasure trove.  (It was one of the things I found when cleaning out my office.)

At 1:30 we went up to the Graduate, a brew pub about a mile from here, where we met Jeri and Phil...and Ned, who had come to join the group.

We all ordered our Grad Burgers an settled in for another visit.  Olivia and I did a lot of Trump-trashing, and well deserved it was indeed.  But my back can't take that long on a bench without some support, so I eventually moved to the other side of the restaurant to a booth, with something to lean against...and to watch them all enjoying each other.

Ned said I looked so pathetic, he decided to drive me home...he had to get back anyway because Marta was due home.  So I came back to the support of my recliner.  Walt and the others followed soon and then they were also on their way.  Jeri and Phil walked over to Atria to have dinner with my mother, but she was already in the dining room eating (yay!) and when she finished they went back to her apartment where they seem to have had a lovely visit, including laughing and singing.  Such a change from yesterday!  So that ended the day on a flood of good emotions.  Jeri and Phil head off for a week at our condo at Tahoe and then back here, briefly, before flying back to Boston.