Dancin' in My Home

Yesterday: sunny.

Today: sunny.

Tomorrow when I last checked: sunny with a stray thunderstorm.

Thursday: sunny.

Friday: sunny.

Today, I could hear the creek, but I could not see the creek. The temperature was in the high 70s with a good wind...it was the kind of day where you would stay outside and then get sunburned because you never realized just how much sun was actually hitting you.

Glorious. I will take my rays of sunshine and the drying out of the Earth for as long as it is possible. Hopefully the Midwest can stay dry so the swelling of the rivers can go down or at least give the people some time to fill as many sandbags as possible to help the levees.

Amazing.

A cornfield that's not yet under water.

My sister took this picture near Waterloo, Iowa. Perhaps the beginning of a tornado?

I Don't Like Thunderstorms Anymore.

Do you ever get that feeling in your gut? The kind that you wish you didn't get? I'm not talking gas. I mean have you ever had the feeling that maybe you should've thought through something just a bit more before deciding to do it?

I had that feeling. Right after I signed my lease.

After the ink was dry, a little voice popped into my head. "Sure, living near the creek is nice," it whispered, "but aren't you just a little too close in the event of a flood?"

"Too late now," I hissed to myself.

Today, that little voice came back booming: TOLD YOU SO!!

Bloomington got nailed today with flash floods. I've never been in a flash flood. I've heard about them, sometimes think people are idiots for driving through water they know they shouldn't and then have their engines stall, really think people who go walking around in flood water have a death wish.

And now I can say I am one of them.

I left home this morning at 8:10, noticed the very high creek, and then thought, Boy, I hope that's all the rain we get today. Ha. Not by a long shot.

At 4:30, the rain came down so hard in all different directions, I thought we were going to have to take cover. A tornado had been reported aways away. But at 5, it seemed things were quieting down. That's when I get out onto the road and have to drive through a trickle of water. No problem. A little farther down, a larger puddle of water. Everyone else is going through it, even littler cars than Civics. No problem. Turn down the wrong road, the main road, and that's when I see Lake Bloomington covering the intersection of 3rd and College Mall Road. Normally, we don't have a Lake Bloomington. But there it was, taunting us all. Great. Now what? Sit like a duck in rising water? I think not. Even though a Passat stalled out, I again noticed smaller cars risking their necks, and decide if it stalls, it stalls, and I go through. Miraculously, my car went through without any problems, but I'd had enough. I went to the mall and pulled in a spot. Why risk death? I called my next door neighbor, and he said that the road wasn't completely flooded, but he couldn't pull into his driveway, so he parked in mine. The back yard was filling, and almost to my door, but I had a few feet left. Forty minutes later, I was able to drive down my street, and that's when I stopped about 5 houses up because the water had risen.

My house was completely surrounded by water. The creek overflowed, and it looked like there was never a small creek, but a raging river. I had no backyard. The patio furniture and little table were completely under water. Had my hammock been hanging up, you wouldn't have seen most of it.

Now, I know you're not supposed to walk through flood water. But how about stumbling and running? In professional work clothes? Well, Dear Reader, that's what I did. I had to save the cats! It's amazing how much you don't think about your safety when you're worried and your mind is in overdrive. I could give a shit about my belongings. They're going into storage anyway. But my precious animals I needed to save. Nevermind the fact that they're cats and hate water, so likely would've climbed on the couch or the table to avoid getting wet.

I finally made it inside, and to my complete amazement, the water hadn't seeped in. Had I opened my back door, it would've been inside. And it's in my crawl space. I can smell it. But the floor was dry and the cats were fine. For all the bugs, when it really counted, this little duplex stood her ground, and I am grateful. I was starting to pack things up and get the cats and leave because the water seemed to be getting higher, but Wiley calmed me down and said not to go anywhere because it shouldn't get any higher. It hasn't.

Now it's 9:30, and not only can I see my driveway, but I can see my backyard. I even drove the car down and parked it, though we're supposed to get more severe storms tonight and I'm worried that it's going to flood again. Let's just say sleep tonight will not be easy.

In the meantime, I have the computer ready to go if I need to make a dash. The cats' carrier is out in the living room, I have a change of clothes in my bookbag, and I've packed up the books that were on the lowest shelf and gotten everything off the floor, should the house decide to flood while I'm not in it (say, tomorrow).

It was such a feeling of helplessness. Can't sandbag - won't do any good. Can't fill bins and take them somewhere. The car's all the way up the street and the current was strong. The only thing I could do was stare and make a circle, not knowing where to start should I actually make a break for it. Thankfully, I didn't have to, and now I'm ready should I need to.

And on a positive note, any little mice that were in the crawlspace are now floating bodies.

I have pictures, but they're on my phone and I don't know how to get them off because I no longer have the option to send them. Once I figure that out, I'll update.

Today's View

Lovely.

Whitewash

This morning, I got up at 7:30, and when I looked outside, there wasn't fog. To the contrary, there were gray clouds, but they were high gray clouds, and there were glimpses of blue sky behind them. And then the sun came out. I could actually see the houses on the hill across from me. I thought, Woo hoo! It's going to be a nice day! I might be able to take pictures!

And then 8 am rolled around, and the fog rolled in, and the sun went away, and the clouds melted into one continuous wash of gray to hide the blue sky and sun that I know is there. Weather forecast - rain until Wednesday, when we might get to see a smidge of sun.

Grumble grumble grumble.

2nd Coming

The snow started later in the evening. Big, fat flakes. I wondered if they would stick.

This morning, the Emerald Curtain was a bit brighter. I knew what this meant.

I got up, looked outside the window, and even bigger, fatter flakes were falling. I looked down, and the sidewalk had been plowed. With an actual plow. I noticed the five inches on top of the hedge. In other words, a perfect day to stay inside.

But do you think that's what happened? Oh, no.

We walked over to the burek shop so Wiley could eat some burek. But they were closed. So we decided to go on to Mercator, the grocery store farthest from our house but our favorite. We trekked through snow and slush. We jumped over lakes in the roads. A car splashed us with dirty water and I ended up with four big glops of slush on my leg and jacket. Once there, we hit the jackpot - vanilla cookie smelling votives and some Christmas votives that are copper and red glitter, which will be perfect around the apartment, a spiral notebook (I swear this is the only place I've seen spirals), tea that smells like cinnamon, BACON that we have to cut ourselves, and even a fresh turkey breast, so we can cook it for Thanksgiving! Last, but not least, was the small cart of Christmas candy right next to the canned fruit. They were candy sticks, and probably not very appetizing, but there was jolly old St. Nick staring back at me! I squealed and told Wiley that he walked right past them.

The one thing we forgot at the store was matches (but I wouldn't even know where to look for them). But Wiley will get them tonight while he's out at dinner with people from Austria who invited him to a conference taking place tomorrow.

That's right - I'll be alone in the evening! This is a first. I plan on blasting all my neighbors with my computer speakers and singing Journey's greatest hits while wearing white socks and a white t-shirt ala Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Don't stop believin'!

Seeing Snow REALLY Close-Up

They said it would snow. I saw the snow on the mountaintop, miles away. Tonight, as I was going to bed, I looked out the kitchen windows, and saw big flakes of snow. This is a picture of the snow illuminated by the building next to us.










And I tried to take a picture of the tree just outside our window to show that the snow is accumulating, but all I got were these big flakes! What did I tell you? BIG FLAKES! Mother Nature's not fooling around. I'll be breaking out the footie pajamas tonight.