It was all going so well and then it rained “cats and dogs*”!
I know we will have our share of cold, frosty, and maybe even snowy weather before we reach our construction anniversary next March but to date it’s been the rain that’s brought building progress to a near standstill. l say “near standstill” because there’s the rear wing, now watertight with its roof, walls and windows, where building work can continue safely sheltered from the rain ……. but outside it was a very different matter. Let me give a quick summary of the outside building "action" going on last week. The building’s façade from the Parish Administrator’s Office to the day school entrance had been ripped off and is being replaced by a very stylish new brick wall. The concrete floor for the great hall and narthex is finished and the steel framework for the walls are being erected. At the rear the day school’s outside classroom and little garden space had been restored with the addition of a new fence and work was focusing on giving the Historic Church’s exterior woodwork its annual “sympathetic” power wash. Yes, all was peace and progress on the ODEC campus last week and then, as the Tuesday afternoon shadows began to lengthen into dusk, the word came “prepare for rain!” (Actually, I have used a bit of “blogging license” there because by late Tuesday afternoon the skies were so grey there were no shadows). It rained, quite hard (English passion for the understatement) on Tuesday night so when I swung by the ODEC Campus around 8:00 a.m. on a rain swept and blustery Wednesday morning I was surprised to find the drive and day school drop off area wet underfoot but not flooded. My first thoughts turned to mentally thanking Ryan and his Higgerson site construction crew for our new storm water management system that was obviously doing its job. Hopping from the comfort of my car into a rain lashed maelstrom I suffered the embarrassment of “brolly blowout*,” obviously lived outside UK for too long for this would never of happened to an experienced brolly user and there simply isn’t anything you can do with a blown out brolly apart from looking slightly sheepish! So, turning back to the weather, the building site was a quagmire and one can only be impressed by the fortitude of our office staffs who risked mud and quicksand to reach the kitchen’s backdoor. Whilst wandering the site, trying to find somewhere not too conspicuous to dump the now useless brolly, I came across Mr. Scott Crumley. In a rain soaked conversation I learnt the lack of flooding on the drive was solely due to his early morning efforts to drain away the standing water, an effort that by noon that day I would come to know myself. Taking my leave of Scott I headed for home, blown out brolly in the back of the car and thoughts of a hot shower, dry clothes and a nice “cuppa*” on my mind (a Brits’ alternative to Georgia). So it was, showered, dry clothed and with cuppa in hand when text messages and phone calls started to arrive. Rainwater was leaking onto Gretchen Hood’s desk in the Parish Administrator’s office narrowly missing the Parish Register, rainwater was seeping through the wall into the day school directors’ office and rainwater was cascading into one end of a classroom. It is an unavoidable outcome if you rip off a wall, in our case the façade, and haven’t quite finished replacing it when it starts to rain really, really hard – water gets inside and it’s time for buckets and mops! Easy for me to say sitting in our kitchen, cuppa in hand watching the rain fall……then came a call to arms. It was by now 11:30 a.m. and day school pick up was approaching but the drive and surrounding grass was once again calf deep in water. Back into a second set of work shorts, shirt and donning rubber Crocs on feet it was a race back to the Church where I met none other than the redoubtable Scott Crumley soaked to the skin, doubled over and up to his elbows in standing water whilst wrestling leaves from one of the two rain water drains in the drive. So there we were, a drain each with the mission to keep the gratings clear of leaves. Let me tell you from first-hand experience, we have fallen leaves the size of dinner plates and keeping them clear of the gratings, so the standing water can drain away, is a great cardio work out and, once the water starts to drain away, very satisfying. The good news is our new storm water management systems works a treat however come the fall getting rainwater into that system in the first place maybe a leafy challenge! And some more good news, once the façade is re-built and the odd bit of masonry added the day school will be completely dry as will be the Angel’s and the Parish Administrator’s offices although there is more destruction to come their way before the end but that’s for a future blog! Stay safe and stay healthy, David Beach. “It’s raining cats and dogs”: An English idiom used to describe particularly heavy rain and is not necessarily related to a raining animals phenomenon (I learnt that it may come from the Greek expression “cata doxa” which apparently means “contrary to experience”). “Brolly”: Colloquial English for an umbrella “Brolly blowout”: The embarrassing moment when you inadvertently turn your umbrella to catch the wind and it blows inside out then followed by that awkward period when you have a blown out umbrella in your hand but can’t find anywhere to dump it! “cuppa”: Colloquial English for a cup of tea
3 Comments
Jackie Murray
11/18/2020 10:59:25 am
Dear David: Thanks again for your informative, colorful description of the weather impact on our future expansion. What a huge challenge for our hero Scott Crumley! Thanks to all of the crews, our staff and clergy for being there in these emergencies.
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Marti Jones
11/18/2020 11:57:16 am
Hello David, your blogging is so descriptive that I felt like I was getting rained on too!
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Mal Higgins
11/18/2020 02:35:20 pm
David, I am guffawing* at your descriptive prose and the thought of your blown out brolly. Yes, a nice cuppa would have been good, but duty called. And thanks to you and the indefatigable Scott, the drains were unplugged and the water went down. Giant, plate sized leaves make for nice shade but not so much for going down the drain.
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AuthorDavid Beach is our Building Project Manager, and has been an active part of our parish family for more than a decade. He is retired from NATO and the British Army and is a joy and blessing to all of us. Archives
July 2021
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