From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: Re: That wretched bureau ...
Keywords: weather 
Organization: Data I/O Corporation
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 16:46:50 GMT

In article <keulen.717408287@possum> keulen@possum.csu.murdoch.edu.au (Mike van Keulen) writes:
>Splash looks around after his outburst with some embarrassement:  "All I ever
>seem to do around here is moan about the weather, isn't it?  Sorry all, but it
>does mean a lot to me, especially now that I'm on borrowed time (my scholarship
>ran out last week), and I have to finish ASAP.  On a brighter note, I was
>offered some consulting work this morning, which may help to bridge the gap for
>a while."

Liralen grins at Splash and makes her way towards him as he speaks. 

>With those words, Splash wanders over to the bar and orders another iced
>chocolate.  "To summer and new opportunities!"
>
><Glug glug glug>
>
><Crash!!>

"Congratulations on the consulting." she says and then steals a glance
outside her window.  The sky is all soft grey.  Fall is coming here, and
the storms have been coming through, recently, with great frequency.  "I
rather like your weather reports and complaints." she says, "My job is
almost exactly the opposite, I'm stuck in an office with my back to the
windows, so I almost never really know what the weather's like.  It's nice
to know that *someone* is in full contact with how the world wags."

She grins a bit, and goes on, "Just a couple of weeks ago, we did an add-on
to our house, and for three days we had a 15 foot by 11 foot hole in our
livingroom and we became intensely aware of the fact that the seasons were
changing from summer to fall.  One night it hit 38 degrees F *in* the house
and we were freezing our buns off.  The third night, a wind storm started up
and the plastic, which had stayed perfectly in place the two nights before
because of gravity and four nails through wood pieces at the top of it,
blew completely over to where there already *was* a roof instead of
protecting the parts where there wasn't any roof.  John had heard the 
flapping around 3am and went down and swore at it for a while, but with the
high winds, he didn't want to go up on a ladder and wrestle with the
wretched plastic, so he just went back to bed and told me to wake him up if
I heard rain.  I woke up later and heard the rain just pouring down.  I
poked him in the ribs, and said, 'It's raining.' 'Oh, shit.' he said."

"Both of us went down to assess the damage as it would take some work to
fix, and as it was a Tuesday morning, we'd have to do it before going to
work...  So, we trudged down in our bathrobes, and as we got closer to the
Hole, we noticed that the new floor was *dry*.  And that while it was
raining hard outside, none of the dripping sounds were on the floor we'd
put in.  We looked up and there was the tarp... laid perfectly flat against
the new rafters, the rainwater just smoothing it down even flatter..."
Liralen grins, "It's the first time I've ever danced with John in a
bathrobe... We just went crazy... and Fezzik started barking in the laundry
room because he thought there were intruders or something... so we let him
out and he got all excited and knocked over a lamp..."  she chuckles and
thumps the side of the dog that is looking at her because she mentioned his
name.

"Anyway... I guess I just wanted to say that it was sorta neat, for a
while, to live at the whims of nature; and that I rather *like* hearing
about your weather problems and cooperation as it sorta reminds me that
there are some people that do live on the pulse of the real world.
Thanks."

---
Liralen Li - li@inigo.Data-IO.com