Ow.

Well, we managed to survive the flood unscathed, but judging by the giant piles of carpet, underpadding, insulation, drywall, couches, dressers, appliances etc. on front lawns and boulevard strips, a lot of people were hit really hard with the flooding. Apparently a lot of people aren’t going to be covered on insurance either, because their coverage does not include damage from groundwater, only sewage backing up. So if you had sewage spewing from your toilets and floor drains, you are set, but otherwise, sorry, sucks to be you.

It’s going to take a long time to fix. I saw a lot of road sections washed out, and parts of sidewalks almost completely undercut.

One really sucky result of the flood is that my department at work got completely toasted. The building where I work is built into a hill, and the anthropology department is in the basement section, half in and half out of the ground. Well, everyone had at least 8-12″ of water in all the offices and seminar rooms and down the hallway. My brand new office now needs to be gutted and the carpets and walls replaced. I am very glad that I only lost one box full of stuff. I haven’t been in to check, but I am hoping it was the nonessential box (student assignments from last year) and not the essential box (all my course records and notes). I was planning on popping in this week to get organised since I don’t start until August 16th, but who knows when it will all be done. I know a lot of professors were hit really hard, especially those who are proponents of the floor-filing system. Eeps.

In other news, I might not even have a job to go to. It’s looking more and more like the union is going to go on strike. I am in a limbo situation right now, where my contract ended on May 15th, and my new permanent job in the same union doesn’t start until the 16th, and the union can go on strike on the 12th. So if they do, I can’t even start my job to get strike pay. This is kind of freaking me out, for three main reasons and tons of sub-reasons that feed off of it. Some of this is stupid, some is real. I think I need to hash them out.

1. Money. I haven’t worked all summer, and while we can survive on Chris’s paycheque alone, we’ve had to make a lot of purchases this summer like new windows and door, a new truck, the fence in the backyard. That has eaten away a lot of our savings, which makes me very nervous. When I am working too, we can funnel pretty much all of my paycheque into savings and that makes us feel much better.
2. Job. If they do strike, it’s looking like it will be a long strike. That means that the kids taking anthro will have their labs completely screwed over. This is supposed to be my job, and I am damn good at it. If the department scrambles to get the grad students to teach it, well, I am feeling really resentful and selfish about that. What if when I finally start work, they decide that the old grad student system works ok…there goes all my pull. I know it is stupid, but I can’t stop feeling that way.
3. Time. I am feeling a time crunch now, like I want to get all of my labs planned out and organised, and all the administration stuff done. Problem is, I am not getting paid to do this right now, and there are other things I should be doing, like writing up my thesis into a journal article, or working on the other two articles I have been messing around with. Or, say, the freelance web stuff I have been neglecting. My garden always could do with more attention…the list goes on. I hate feeling like I am pressured now.

I have emailed my boss, and the one professor I work closely with, so we’ll see what happens.

I played slo-pitch last night with Chris at the rec league from school. I haven’t been the last two games because of that dratted cold, but I finally decided to go last night after dragging myself around all day whining about it. I actually had a lot of fun last night, and I think it was because several people who I don’t like weren’t there! Amazing how that changes the temper of the team. I also got to play rover in the shallow outfield and it was a lot of fun, and I was actually making the plays. I think that is a better spot for me, and I found it enjoyable, so maybe we can work that out to be a regular rotation. The only sucky things about last night were the giant horsefly which kept attacking me, and the grounder ball which smacked off the inside of my left calf. I have a perfect round contusion the size of a softball there now, which stings constantly, especially when I walk. Better that than the shin or my face though, I think.