Rain

February 4, 2012


Have you missed me?  I have totally been lolly gagging around.  You know--eating bon bons and drinking champagne, crafting astoundingly detailed replications of famous ancient structures (visualize a Mayan temple or the Hanging Garden of Babylon) out of Ivory soap, and in general, wasting more time than you can shake a stick at.  My dereliction to posting is in no way caused by my schedule being filled with the richly rewarding paid work I do, expanding the minds and attitudes of young men and women or in any way by the unpaid work I do--household or community-wise.


I did spend a few extra minutes worrying about the dogs last night.  Walter and I met some friends downtown for First Friday, never expecting that we would get four inches of rain before we got home.  Willie and Teddy didn't get a drop wet, but I think they had very little appreciation for the light(ning) show or the bass-heavy sound effects (that my local weatherman when I was growing up always called "thunder boomers") that came with our rain.  The two and a half more inches that we got as the night progressed plus the run off from the surrounding territory has brought the lake up enough that it is now, once again, recognizable as a lake, in that we could actually stand on the dock and throw a rock that could reach the water.  We are still three or four feet low, but it no longer looks like we live on Newt Gingrich's moon base when we look out across our backyard lakebed.


Across town, my friend Michelle's backyard creek came up so fast that her pair of prized "Amish Furniture for Generations" chairs were swept away downstream (so much for the next generations who were expecting to enjoy them).  They found one, but are still searching for its mate.   If you see an escaped chair that looks like this, drop me a note.  

It is hard to believe a chair this stout looking could just float away, but I have seen stranger things.  Back in 1979, my hometown, Alvin, Texas, had the misfortune of being underneath a mile thick raincloud when it stalled.  We got 43 inches of rain in 24 hours (From the National Climate Data Center:  the Unites States 24-hour record rainfall occurred at Alvin, Texas with 43.00 inches recorded on July 25-26, 1979).  We had friends whose house flooded, and their baby grand piano floated out of the living room, shattering the sliding glass door.  They found it several miles away and in a state more similar to kindling than its previous state as a magnificent musical instrument.


Anyway, I'm happy for the rain and less happy about the destruction that some experienced. 


P.S.  Walter's birthday present did arrive--a nook tablet.