Or, rather, it should be the other way around.
Sigh.
Yesterday, Peoria saw a rather violent storm. At around about 4:00pm I looked out a window and saw that the sky was a menacing yellow-green. “Huh,” I thought, “Looks threatening.” A little while later it was as if a hurricane had hit. The rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was something fierce. Everyone ran to the windows and admired the force of Mother Nature. I smugly remarked to myself what a competent weatherman I was. Like most violent storms, it did not last long. Fast forward about three hours and you had me, dear friends, and several others decamping for the hotel (while I was on the phone with Skippy). The ride back to the hotel was interspersed with calls about something going on near our hotel. Huh.
As we pulled off the highway and onto the local roads we saw the hotel, or more accurately what remained of the hotel. You see, the third floor was half missing. It just so happened that this is where we were staying. Our rooms burned down. Seriously. Gone. Evidently there was violent lightening after the storm and that started it. So after the rain (cue Nelson) the fire came. Luckily no one was hurt. It made me think that if I had gone to New York all of my stuff would not have been in the hotel.
We had a good laugh of the whole thing and probably will continue to for the next week or so. I’m probably taking it the hardest because I am planning on a short vacation over the weekend and wasn’t to be back home for two weeks. I therefore had just about two weeks worth of clothes in my suitcase and duffle. I also had some DVDs for the road and my digital camera. This is what I lost:
House keys
Luggage
Jacket
Umbrella
Clothes
Shoes
Toiletries
Canon Digital Elph
The Office (Season 1 and 2)
Super Troopers
DVDs from Netflix (The Big Lebowski, The Returner)
American Empire by Andrew Bacevich
The West and the Rest by Roger Scruton (with margin notations)
New Grub Street by George Gissing
Allies by William Shawcross
New Criterion
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