Re: First log in and firs post since Sandy - got flooded - all is gone including the
Thanks for all kind words of support from everyone. At times like these, it really matters to hear this from all of you. And it really so true that in time everything can be replaced - except life - so true.
People we knew (not close friends) took us in for "as long as we needed to stay". Got money back for my Dodge Charger and already got another one (Geico is GOOD). Got money for the bike (Progressive rocks - the adjuster was looking around the bike trying to add as much to the value as possible). Work on the house is progressing, and amazingly contradicts a typica image of contractors - no one wants to take money up front doing work worth many thousands of dollars. They say, ah, you will pay later when we are done. Maybe I just have an honest face, but I think it's more than that.
Reflecting on the past, the week before this happened I participated - for the first time - in an open track day. Had a blast. What a way to finish the season! Almost 200 miles of pure track riding! Mixing it up with the fast crowd, and finally leaving with the feeling that it was ENOUGH riding. And a week later - boom. Anyway, it was 2001 bike. AND I AM READY FOR A TURBO SLEEPER! Street and track.
Another philosophycal detail. We saved a life of a cat. It's a stray cat. She lives in the backyard after we started feeding and pet her, but she is an independant animal - comes and leaves as she wants, but we really got attached to each other. Long story short, when the water started coming, I couldn't get her off the fence and into my hands - she was too scared to jump. A while later, we heard meowing screams. She was at the front door surrounded by water, screaming like crazy. The door was sealed. As she saw me walking to the window, she jumbed into the closed window, hitting the glass hard and fell back. Next moment, I opened the window, and she jumped right in, crawled somewhere on the first floor. All my begging to get out was useless. The water was coming in. She finally jumped on the kitchen table. Somehow I managed to grab her and take to the second floor - this is a cat who's never been picked up by a human. She hid under our bed and spent the entire night quetly sleeping - probably the best sleep she had in her life. We petted her, calmed her down, and throughout the night there wasn't a single sound from her. We had a chance to leave before the storm, and stay with friends. For whatever silly reason, I made a decision to stay. It was pretty scary experience because we didn't know at which point the rising water would stop. Luckily it stopped after climbing 3 steps to the second floor. I am pretty sure that if we left, the cat would've drowned. So, was it worth staying to save the cat? I say, yes.