Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Lost in Translation

Wednesday morning began as usual with me being awakened by the Finnish northern lights right through my bedroom window at 4 am. Well, it is not actually the northern lights, but the brightness surely gets my attention every morning. The days are getting longer in a rapid fashion. It is now getting dark around midnight and light again around 4 am. The weather has been mostly sunny since we arrived with light winds and cool temps. at night. It has only rained two days thus far.
One other event highlighted the start of the day on Wednesday. Ben woke me up at around 8:30 and said to get up quickly because we had a problem in the apartment. I jumped out of bed and walked into his room and water was on the floor and pouring out of the heater/radiatior. We immediately grabbed some towels and whatever else we could to stem the flow of water. There was no obvious shut off valve and the pressure began to build and more water was coming out. I located the apartment maintenance number, but couldn't get through to them. The situation was becoming worse by the second, so I rang the neighbor's door and asked for some assistance. She had another number and was able to reach the maintenance department. They arrived about 10 minutes later and stopped the bleeding after a few more minutes. By this time, water had moved halfway across Ben's room, passed through the wall into the living room, and was also leaking into the downstairs apartment. We cleaned the area up as best we could, so now the situation will be monitored and they will recheck the situation next week. One option is that I might be moved to another apartment.
Other than that, things are going okay. I am learning my way around the city a little more each day. I drive my car back and forth to meetings and practices, and then I always walk if I am shopping or doing errands in the city.
We are gearing up for our Eurobowl playoff game this weekend. We are also trying to sign another import player who has NFL experience and was on Carolina's practice squad all of last season. This would be a big boost for our team if we can get him signed.
I am in the middle of reading the John Grisham book "Coaching For Pizza." I am nearly halfway through it now and it is a good read so far. It is very different from the type of story that Grisham normally tells, but he is a masterful writer. I also thought it would be an appropriate book to read, since the focus of the tale is based on American football in Europe. It is also interesting to point out that I have probably had pizza 6 or 7 times already since I moved here to coach, so maybe I am also coaching for pizza. Anyway, check the book out if you get a chance. Well, I guess that I should wrap things up for today. A few stacks of laundry awaits me as I must now begin the clean-up/laundry from our flood this morning.
Lights out.

A little coffee and tira misu combined with an interesting Grisham tale is a superb mix

Apartment maintenance helping us sort out the flood that took place in my apartment from an unruly radiator.

Water spreading across the room and ultimately to the downstairs apartment too. (Fun times!)
The level of darkness or lightness if you will at midnight in Seinajoki! (View from the apartment)

3 comments:

Estalita said...

So did the flooding bring back memories of a few weeks ago? :-)

Dusty 6'6'' 250 said...

You probably thought you were just dreaming when you heard of the flooding...did you grab a bucket when you heard the news? haha...that's usually how you handle flooding...bucket, empty...bucket, empty...Essy! your turn! hurry up! haha

Ed Reverse said...

If you guys don't start getting up on time you'll be praying for pizza instead of playing for it. :-)