Bronx cheer!

I've gotten scared of lightning as I've gotten older. It's partly from a bad experience when I was a teenager but it's partly just me. The dog is batshit crazy scared of thunder and lightning. Kath deduced a couple of weeks ago that Em was probably home alone when something loud and/or frightening happened relating to a storm.

Today here in the city its been stormy for a few hours. Audio Girl watched the bolts strike here and there around the city through the window behind me and was kind enough not to tell me about it until it was over. Every clap of thunder I thought, "That is the sound of my dog's head exploding."

I forgot my umbrella.

It was only showering a bit as I walked to the subway. Getting off the subway and heading to the bus it was bucketing down. Nevins Street was a river and a nurse and I crossed it in our clogs laughing at the ridiculousness of it. I thought about walking home but the bus was there and not crowded so I hopped on. By the time I got off it was back to a drizzle so I covered three blocks easily.

As I closed on my building I saw 2 fire trucks parked across the street. My mother taught me well so I said to myself, "It's not my building." But I stepped up the pace because I can take a lot but the thought of leaving my poor dog and kittens to be devoured by a fire ALONE is way too much. But it's not my building so it's OK. (It's not my building. It's not my building."

Except that there were firefighters in the lobby of my building. I'm a huge fan of Rescue Me but I have no interest in living out an episode in real life.

They said it wasn't my apartment so I went to get the dog. I figured someone had a grease fire or a an episode of wack jobbery and called the FDNY.

The dog did a tarantella as soon as I arrived. She wanted out, Out, OUT! I gave her a treat, checked that my Netflix discs weren't cracked then hitched her up and went outside. At the entrance to the complex I ran into the Newf and the Cockers, their MamaGirl is a fabulous neighborhood gossip gleaner. So I told her the fire fighters were in my building. Her first reaction was, "I wonder if you were hit by lightning."

I actually scoffed. I said, "Why do you always go there, you always find the last thing I ever would have guessed." But I got her to come to the corner with me to see if there was anyone to talk to at the fire truck.

Well, she was about 10 feet back when I hit the corner and saw 4 more trucks and probably 30 cops and firefighters standing around the blocked off main thoroughfare. The 24 hour deli was blocked off! That's where they keep my ice cream! We crossed and headed toward the gathering crowd.

There's a huge chunk blown off the top corner of my building! MamaGirl approaches a cop then turns to me and says, "See!" Lightning struck my motherfucking building! There were shards of brick (big shards, shards that would make dangerous holes in one's head) as far as 50 feet away. About 10 bricks lay on the ground by the deli. The FDNY had a ladder truck set up and people inside and outside the apartment that was nearest the hit. I didn't hear anyone report any damage to the apartment but you could see cracks in the outer wall going almost to the floor below.

So now I'm not scared of being hit by lightning or electrocuted, I'm frightened of being conked on the noggin by bricky shrapnel!

While we were out there gawping (as my mother taught me never to do) and chatting someone mentioned bits and pieces of a Big Dig tunnel flattening someone in Boston. When I got back inside I called PapaKizz. I figure if I hadn't heard then it probably wasn't him but checking in is the nice thing to do (whoops I forgot to ask about the last weekend of his show, got to do that tomorrow). His response, "Oh, I thought you were calling about Exeter!"

It's been an exciting couple of days. Check out what happened to Chili's house (more than one entry, make sure you read far enough to see the pictures of the telephone pole). Check out the photo gallery of my hometown. And maybe tomorrow I'll get you some pictures of the damage to my building. Too exciting.

The thunderstorms are supposed to continue here and there through this time tomorrow. For the first time in the history of Emily I have given her a puppy quaalude. I figure I'll give her one to see how she does with it tonight and if she does OK I'll give her one tomorrow before I leave for work so she'll feel a little better while I'm at work. So far she's responding to stimuli and moving occasionally of her own volition but she's pretty fucking chilled out.

Anybody got any Kizzy Quaaludes?