Sandy the Frankenstorm has come and gone and fortunately for us in general we got little but a lot of wind and even more rain – no storm surge and very little damage. Such was not the case with our friends in New England so our thoughts go out to them along with our hopes that they all came out relatively unscathed.

In our case we did have one small problem in that since there was a heavy rainfall within a short period of time and since the wind blew the leaves off the trees that were ready to shed them we got a huge plug of dead leaves in one of the culverts that caused the 55 mm of rainfall to back up significantly. Of course the plug wouldn’t be conveniently at one end of the pipe or the other. No! No! It would have to be eight feet inside the pipe and run for a good six feet so we had to blast it out with a fire hose. Meanwhile the one or two people in town who were opposed to the project in the first place were happily snapping photos and planning their campaign of misinformation about how we should never have done anything about the intersection. The fact that the culvert was the one that was originally there and I have to suspect that the blockage was caused by an unfortunate sequence of events, and not the repaving project, does not nor will it ever enter into their though processes. Good thing they do all their negativity from a distance otherwise I might be writing this from a jail cell.

Nelleke was fine and suffered no ill effects from the storm so I am really happy that we were able to get her out before the storm hit. This weekend we will be concluding the winterization and tucking her in for the winter. A sad time but it will give us the peace of mind to allow me to finish the work in the house: the kitchen, the bathroom, the cupboard under the stairs, and the living room wiring and ceiling; all of which will make the house more finished looking.

On a different note the stress of being responsible for all of the town’s public works and infrastructure as well as the small minority of people who are so negative about everything ranging from a project getting done that they felt wasn’t necessary to their pet project not being done, and from folks who want us to trim their hedges to people who want my boss and myself fired because we don’t come from the area. Most of the bitches come from the same people so it’s not like there are a lot of them, just enough to get my stomach acid churning. At least it would appear that the new council and mayor are people that we can work with so that’s a relief. I was for a while there actually considering going back into retirement but now I am thinking that I will tough it out for at least another year. Although the idea of a seven day weekend and the freedom that entails is very attractive, the idea of having a larger cruising kitty is even more so.