When It Rains, It Pours...

Just call me Oscar the Grouch. After two days of being busy with family obligations, I was looking forward to some "me" time yesterday, catching up on reading blogs and finally planting the rest of my plant purchases. Instead, I spent the day with the shop vac and mounds of towels mopping up water from my carpeting in the basement. Perhaps you'll understand why I'm just a little bit grumpy and really, really tired of rain.

In my last post I talked about the delayed planting of crops due to the rain, but none of that rain compared to Tuesday's storms. They began in the wee hours Tuesday morning; as I drove my daughter to an appointment, the sheets of water blew across the highway so hard that I had to pull off for awhile until I could see the road once again. By Tuesday evening they reached full force, with warnings of tornados that kept us in the basement most of the evening (minus the water at that point). We didn't have a tornado, thank goodness, but I awoke Wednesday morning to two inches of water in our finished basement. The sump pump was working, but the rain came down so hard--six inches according to the Weather Service--and there was nowhere for it to go in the saturated ground that the sump pump just couldn't keep up.

After a few hours of being on my knees on saturated carpet, I had to take a break and took some time to look past our yard. Our neighbors now have their own private lake--in their cornfield. Granted, this is in a low-lying area, but similar conditions exist throughout farms in the area. I don't think farmers will be planting soybeans any time soon.

Looking in the opposite direction, you'll see what appears to be a peaceful stream meandering through the woods behind another neighbor's house. Unfortunately, though, this is normally a grassy area with a small drainage ditch. On a typical day, there might be a foot of water in this ditch.

Driving into town to run a few errands became quite an adventure, as one street after another was closed due to standing water. I don't think these people went very far yesterday, unless they had a boat.

Of course, on a hot, muggy day, what could be more fun than riding your bike through a "puddle" of water, seeing who can create the biggest splash?

And just in case you weren't paying close attention, the ever-vigilant town maintenance department made sure you were aware of the situation.

By late morning the sun came out, but there were gray clouds in the evening with rumbles of thunder in the distance. The 10-day forecast has a few more storms predicted. Sigh...

On the bright side, my flowers (and weeds) are loving all this rain, except for the zinnias I sowed in one flowerbed--they may have been victims of drowning. And I saw my first hummingbird today! It apparently liked the new feeder I put on my porch, which is within a few feet of the swing so that I can get some good pictures of them. Of course, I neglected to bring my camera out this morning.

For those of you spending your days watering your garden, I will gladly send some of this rain your way. In the meantime, I'll try to get over these rainy day blues as soon as my basement floor dries out. And I promise my next post will be more upbeat with photos of flowers in bloom, even if I have to wade through water to take them!