Photos of flooding incident

Here are some exciting pictures of the situation at 1511 Grand Ave. early this morning. I am releasing these to the local media for use, but I would really like to be credited as "Dan Feidt / HongPong.com". I am a resident of #15 at 1511 Grand. After WCCO interviewed me in the morning, Channel 5 and Channel 9 came through around lunchtime! Those camera guys in the last photo were from 5 and 9. The woman in the reflective red vest was from the red Cross, offering us shelter.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Abby's room got the worst of it. Mattress and many furnishings soaked.

9 AM and I'm already on local television today

About 5 AM, pounding on my door. Gotta Evacuate they shout. I swing off the futon, my swollen foot splashes on the ground. Splashes? I stagger out to the door. Firemen in the hallway. Hallway's soaked. Gotta get out, they say, water on the roof, risk of collapse. Water poured in through the hatch on the ceiling, evidently through the wall, into my apartment. We go outside, four big fire trucks. They put the ladders up. One says that we can go in and gather some stuff. Someone from the Red Cross is going to arrive soon and offer shelter. I go back with one of the firemen, shut off my computer and put a garbage bag over it, placing it on top of a milk crate.

I go back outside. A WCCO cameraman has set up and interviews Chris the caretaker. I stand behind him, looking somewhat concerned in the still-falling rain. Plaster has broken off and is scattered around the first floor hallway. My friend Abby's apartment, on the first floor below mine, is apparently quite soaked.

I retreat up Snelling, trudging past SA with my busted ankle in the rain, Vicodin and Advil rattling in my pocket. I call my parents and they tell me that a segment is coming on WCCO. We tune in at a friend's house. The image is fuzzy, but there I was, already in the background. That was quick.

We go to Coffee News where one of the apartment-mates works. we got breakfast and awaited word on the apartment. Finally we hear it's all clear, so i decide to go back for my iPod before i go to work. As I enter, Chris says that WCCO is back filming again. The crew asks me if they can film me going into my apartment. Of course I was down with that. So they mic'ed me up with a wireless and I introduce them to my messy-ass apartment. A brief interview, coffee in hand, towels and junk all over the place.

Apparently there will be a feature at noon on WCCO today. I'm going to head out on my lunch break and use my camera to take a video of it.

Very little damage for me. Just a couple damp pillows and one box of junk. Far worse for Abby downstairs. But I've already been on TV once today. Not bad at all!

Ankle forces a downshift

Hey all, well now it's August and I am sort of bedded up with a busted ankle. I was messing around on Saturday night and twisted it pretty well. It swelled right up but I thought it would wear off pretty quickly. Unfortunately, by Monday night my whole foot was club-shaped, kind of purple on the side. Bending the foot on the straight-ahead axis works all right, but side-to-side and turning are not good.

So today I went into the clinic and got some X-rays. No bone fractures and I can hobble around on it. So they gave me a brace. The doc advised a few Advil every day for a week and it would be all right. Then I asked, hmm, what about a little Vicodin?

And so Vicodin was had. These dog days of August will be a little hazier. I think they'll probably be updates tomorrow since even walking a couple blocks sucks right now.

In the meantime, VH1's Best Week Ever has random facts about Jews according to Mel Gibson.

This was from the Apocalypto trailer, a single frame of madness.
We all know he's fuckin crazy. Anyway... We here at HongPong.com have been on his case for a while.