Ka-Boom!

Too, too true.



So I may have mentioned (well, actually I haven't . . . and I know I haven't . . . but the phrase sounds good, so I'm gonna use it, dangit!) that our apartment is right next to a canal. The canal, I believe actually. As in, when anyone in Logan talks about "the canal" they might not mean the stretch in front of our apartment, but it's connected to it.

Now, our parking lot is literally right next to said canal. As in, there is a large retaining wall and that is all that marks where the asphalt ends and water begins.

Well . . . there was a retaining wall. (okay, okay, technically there still is. Just roll with me, k?)

So anyway, there's been a section of the wall that's been . . . leaning . . . for a while. They did some patch up working on the parking lot last summer and I imagine that didn't help what was probably a pre-existing condition. (Good thing the wall didn't need insurance, eh?) And then this winter with the snow and the cars and the stupid-people-who-pull-forward-until-their-car-hits-the-wall - well, you know, that all just didn't help. And the wall started leaning rather noticeably. So Luke and I quit parking on that side a couple of months ago. And notes were sent out telling people not to park right up against the wall. And the wall kept leaning. And some of last summer's patch-up job started to sag much, much lower than the rest of the lot. Then, this past Monday when we were meeting with the manager to discuss becoming the new full-time maintenance peeps because the other couple moved, we find out that the problem is being worked on. At least, as much as the whole "getting bids on the work and trying to get the canal company to shut off the water so we can do it now instead of in the fall" thing counts toward working on it. Good times.

So. Yesterday I put out notes saying "hey, we're getting those concrete barrier things they put in parking lots on Tuesday as a temporary fix so don't park on that side Tuesday morning." Seriously. Yesterday. As in, like, thirty hours ago.

So. Today. Luke goes to work at nine this morning. (yeah . . . they changed his schedule again . . . for, like, the tenth time this year . . . grrrrrrr.) He walks to work since it's so close. All was well, apparently. About an hour later I hear this rumble and the place kind of jerks a little. And Lacey thinks "dude, another earthquake?!", considers posting something to that effect on facebook, decides not to, and hops in the shower. Hopping out of the shower, I am shortly thereafter confronted by a knock on the door. And, well, boom went the dynamite. And I missed it!!!! GRRRR!!!!! I call the manager, turns out she's in Provo, she's already called the owners and they're in church. So - quick recap of the "in charge hierarchy" - owners: not available. Manager: not in the freaking county. Old maintenance people: conveniently moved out just two weeks ago. Luke: at work. That leaves: me. Great. So I go out, find out that everybody else decided to investigate, so pretty much everybody who lives here is out there. Which is good, because one car was about to follow the wall into the canal and they couldn't find the owner (of the car, I mean) but somebody had a chain and a truck and they hauled it back. It's still there too, totally blocking half the remaining, in tact parking lot. Obnoxious! There wasn't really much for me to do though. Just grab the construction barrier thingy from the shed, discover that the rope is missing from the shed and wonder how I'm supposed to rope the place off like I've been instructed. However, the police showed up - I'm hoping somebody called them, because if they just randomly decided to check on things that would be a little weird. Especially considering that at one point there were, like, five cop cars out here. I mean, I know this is Logan on a Sunday but come on!! Anyway, they had caution tape, so now we've got that strung across half the parking lot. The place totally looks like a crime scene out of a really low-budget disaster movie (kind of like the ones my mom's been putting on their Netflix instant queue lately - just ask her, she'll admit it!). Good times. Allow me to refer you to the awesome album of pics I just uploaded to facebook. :-) I'm totally behind on the uptake of that whole thing too - as we were all standing around gaping at the whole in the wall (because really, what else was there to do? Pretty much nothing.) a bunch of people were laughing about how they'd already put their pictures up there. Of course, as we all know nothing's official until it's on facebook. So it's official: the wall fell down. And Luke and I are both ticked that we missed it. Seriously, how cool would it have been if it had fallen right as Luke was walking to work? Well, I don't think it would have been that cool, because I still would have missed it. But still . . . you get what I'm sayin', right?

I have no idea who's going to do what. Or when. All I know is, we only have half a parking lot. And that I did not get a picture of the cars on the other side of the canal that got epically splashed and so mud covered you'd think they gone off-roading in Moab or something. Well, except for the dirt not being red. Seriously, epic muddiness. How dare those people drive their cars away before I got a picture!!

So all in all, good times were had by all. Except maybe Luke, since he just got the play-by-play via text until he came home a little bit ago. Here's to more catastrophes (and non-catastrophic events) that keep us busy around here and make our rent cheap as free! :-)

P. ost S. cript

OH-EM-GEE CUTENESS EXPLOSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!