no flood damage

there is no flood damage... at least in my neighborhood. in other parts of the county, yes there is. and in neighboring counties. and other states, too. in the local region, 4 people died from the flooding. and $100,000,000 damage, according to governor pataki, who was here yesterday. there were sooooo many helicopters flying overhead yesterday, one flew right over my house and it was really loud. i didn’t go anywhere, except on a short walk to the community college and back to visit my dad, who went to work despite the fact that he has the whole summer off and nobody else is there. well ok there was maybe a grand total of ten people on the entire bcc campus. but you get the picture. so yeah, the damage is devastating, in broome county, tioga county, delaware county, and just south of us in pennsylvania, things are also bad there. when i wrote the last post i was kind of nervous because i had no idea what was going on except what i had heard on the radio, and there was not much in the news about it. today the newspaper is entirely devoted to the flood and this is the main article. so i don’t think they really arrested anyone for driving around or anything, but there was an order not to drive unless it was an absolute emergency. in tioga county, they actually said they would arrest people for driving on the roads, but not here in broome county. anyway, there was flooding in all sorts of low-lying areas near the rivers, and all of the most densely populated areas with the most stuff are near the rivers. like i said, i’m on the side of a hill, so no prob here. i was just totally freaking out the last time i posted here. but i’m fine. some people lost their homes and cars and stuff, and 4 people actually died. i’m supposed to mow the rest of the lawn today, since all the rain that went on for days kept me from finishing up the lawn before. that should be annoying, mowing the wet grass... but i have to, or else i will be severely punished. even though the yard is like a swamp. and the weather outside is hot and sunny now... i think there are going to be lots of medical problems in the region, since all the doctors have offices on riverside drive, which is on the side of the river, and i think that got flooded. i have an appointment on riverside drive tomorrow. so, i will see, on that day, if that building still stands, and if it is turned to mush, and if my psychologist is there, he will probably either tell me how he is disappointed in me or excited for me, but i can never tell which he will be beforehand, and it is usually a mixture of both. usually he is mostly disappointed but finds at least one thing to stay excited about, one area where i seem to have made some progress. but today i need to mow the wet, soggy, grass, you know, the grass out in the swamp around my house, because it’s snot a lawn anymore. the lawnmower will probably explode in flames. but i need to do that shit or else i get punished. meanwhile, people who lost their homes and stuff are now off living in the binghamton university event center, which, like i said, is kind of like the new orleans superdome. except, it seems, this one is actually managed properly, and they were able to deal with it much better. actually, they seem to have done an amazingly good job at emergency management around here, i think. there were fricken helicopters everywhere, like i said. my dad is upstairs replacing the old plastic shower head with a new shiny metal one and cleaning the ceiling of the bathtub with bleach. as the new shower head once said, “bite my shiny metal ass!” or was that bender on futurama? anyway, i need to go out and mow the damn lawn. other people in the neighborhood are mowing their lawns now. none of the services ever got shut off, and although we get our water from the binghamton city water supply, they managed to keep it going without issuing a boil water advisory like in another nearby town. but there are some places that were just utterly destroyed by the flooding, like conklin or walton, according to the news. my mom went on a bike ride yesterday with a camera and photographed some pretty awful flooding that is just 2 blocks downhill from here, actually within walking distance. next to interstate 81 is the parking lot for the church just down the street and their parking lot is like a soup bowl that is full; at least one s.u.v. is now clam chowder, and my mom has the photos to prove it. but my car is high and dry, as they say. so, it’s time for my gas-powered lawnmower to use up some fossil fuels and put more goddamn greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to cause more natural disasters. thanks for the warning, al gore, but you are too late! next time, get a time machine! peace, i’m out!