A stormy day in the life of the entrepreneur

The adorable, quaint old building in which Fashioned By Jaye resides is great in so many ways. It used to be the home of Sass' Jewelry -- from about the turn of the century until I belive the mid-60s or so -- and was built in the late 1800s. It's sturdy as all hell -- even after sitting vacant and abandonned and water damaged for decades, it's structurally very sound. It's got those great display case windows in the front. We love the vaulted ceiling and the mezzanine space. If you haven't seen the old safe in the back of the store -- rusty and unable to lock now after decades of water damage, but still a really neat piece of history to look at -- come in some time and ask to see it. It's the kind of safe that you'd need to keep Bonnie and Clyde away from your diamonds -- literally.

But it's also below grade in the rear. If you've ever come in the back entrance of the store off the parking lot by the bus depot, you know just how far below ground level the back part of the store is. Makes a great tornado shelter. Also makes a great swimming pool if it rains too hard too fast.

And boy, did it rain too hard to fast tonight.

It's flooded in here before. Actually, the first time it flooded was the weekend right before our grand opening. I was sitting in my tent at Cider Days on Walnut Street, watching the little concession-stand-container boats float down the river that was running down the street, when my landlord called to say we had a bit of a water problem in the store. That was a bit of an understatement. When I got to the store, we had about an inch of water in all the back rooms. Thank goodness most everything I had back there was stored in plastic bins, and my landlord (who's really great) had moved anything not plastic up out of the danger zone. No harm, no foul.

It's actually a good thing it happened then, because from that point on we knew to make sure nothing sat on the floor that could possibly be damaged by water. We've also devised a sandbag system for the back door, where most of the water tends to flow in. It's worked pretty well so far.

That is, until about 7:30, when the rains and winds kicked up really hard. I was on the phone, assuring everyone that I was okay sitting here in my little brick and plaster cave, when I turned around and saw the water. I'd sandbagged the door, so I was a little taken aback that the water had come in anyway, especially the amount of water I was suddenly standing in. I headed toward the back door to see what could have possibly gone wrong.

The water was coming in around the sides of the door, about a foot ABOVE the sandbags.

Of course, there was no stopping it.

And thus the FBJ River was born.

I just spent about a half an hour pushing water out the FRONT door with a squeegy, so much of the standing water is gone. Nothing's really been damaged, but I'm already exhausted and the night is still young. Let's hope there's no more flash floods coming our way.

I hope everyone makes it through tonight's storms okay.