AND THE RAINS CAME

 

From at least 4:30 AM, when Grandpère turned on the light in the bathroom without closing the door and woke me up, it rained and poured and rained and poured the entire day.  Since I needed groceries, when the rain slackened a bit, I rushed to the supermarket.  Alas, while I was shopping, the torrential rain started again, and, when I left the supermarket, I had to wade through the heavy rain in above-the-ankle water in the flooded parking lot to reach my car.  On the way home, I found that my street was blocked by the police because of floodwater. I backed up, turned around, and approached from another direction and was able to reach home, TBTG. I didn't leave the house for the rest of the day, except for periodically donning the plastic poncho to take Diana out to do her business.

The heavy rain doesn't show in the picture above, but you can see the puddles and maybe the water in the street, if you click on the photo.   

RAIN, RAIN...

How I wish I could send some of the rain that fell all day yesterday and, so far, all day today to the places that suffer from drought.  Donning the waterproof parka and gathering up the wet umbrella to walk Diana in the rain is getting old.  She doesn't mind a walk on the lead in the rain, but when she's off the lead, she's not content on her bed on the patio and wants to be inside.  I do mind the walk in the rain.  On the first walk of the day, I made the mistake of using only the umbrella, and I got soaked.

The photo above was not taken in the worst of the weather, which was yesterday, with rain, wind, lightning, and thunder, but you can see the puddles under the trees from the heavier rainfall.  Earlier today, we had a downpour, and I decided to pass on church.  With age come privileges of avoiding the drive in the rain and sloshing through puddles.  The picture below shows the puddle around the flower bed near the front porch.

And just for fun, the dinosaurs in the neighborhood are pictured below.   Who says humans and dinosaurs do not inhabit the earth together?

HE CAUGHT ME!

The man in the mosquito-spray truck caught me this evening at dusk.  Thank goodness I was just finishing up my walk and was near my house.  Usually, he will turn off the spray as he passes me, but tonight, he did not.  "They" say the chemical is not harmful to humans and animals, but who the hell knows, except that our back yard feeder still attracts large numbers of birds.  The birds are kind of a test, you know, like the canary in the coal mine.

Why is Mr Spray Man  spraying on a Saturday night?  I thought I was safe, because it was Saturday, and it wasn't even dark yet.  I have to admit that the mosquitoes would be fierce around here without the spray, because we've had a lot of rain.  Yesterday, it rained all day, and I was out with my umbrella several times for Diana to pee.  As soon as the weather clouds up, she wants in the house, but once I had her out on the lead, she was straining to go for a walk.  Sorry, girl, I don't think so.

Such is life in a smallish town in south Louisiana.

Photo from Boston.com where I just noticed that the picture bears the caption: "An East Middlesex mosquito truck sprays on Bedford's McIntosh Road, not far from a US wildlife refuge that bans the practice."  Yikes!  The entire article is about the controversy over spraying in East Middlesex, Massachusetts.   And the spray may be harmful to bees, which is not good at all.  Oh dear!

On the other hand, we have cases of West Nile fever in Louisiana, though not yet in my area.  Hmm.

AND THE RAINS CAME!

Out damned spots! I don't know what the spots in the photos are. They sometimes appear when I don't have enough light.

Spots be damned, we had a good rain this afternoon. For a while there, I was worried. The thunder clapped; the lightening flashed; the wind blew, but no rain fell. I thought we'd have a storm without rain. And then the rains came.


Grandpère says that we have not had rain since Mardi Gras, which was on March 8, three months ago. Thanks be to God for the liquid refreshment.

YOUNG BUTLER CHILDREN

 

Above is one of my favorite pictures of my children when they were young. My daughter loves the picture, too. Although you can't see what the kids look like, I think its a wonderful piece of photography. My neighbor, Kathy Silverberg, took the picture. Kathy worked for the local newspaper, The Daily Comet, and the picture appeared on the front page. We'd had rain for days and days and days, and the children hadn't been outside to play in a long time. Like many children and parents, we were restless. The children couldn't work off their energy, and, as a result, were into more mischief than usual. We'd all had enough. Kathy photographed the wistful scene of the kids looking sadly out the window at the never-ending rain.

In those days, if you went to the newspaper office, they'd let you look through their glossy black and white pictures and take any that pertained to you or your family. I framed the picture, and it hangs upstairs in my house.