Rain Rain Go Away

We’ve been having a little rain around here.  It started in mid-August with a soaker of a rainfall that reportedly gave us 2-5 inches of rain in just an hour.   The rest of August gave us a slightly above normal amount of rain until Hurricane Irene, who soaked us again and gave all of us the chance to play Musical Lawn Chairs/Trampolines/Garbage Cans with our neighbors and knocked out power for many people I know for almost a week.  But this week?

Has. Been. A. Doozy.

Picture a nice map of the northeastern United States.  Now picture Tropical Depression Lee to the west of Pennsylvania and Hurricane Katia to the east, in the ocean.  Those two weather systems funneled a crazy amount of hard, heavy rain right through central Pennsylvania for three days.  Three days of crazy hard rain.  I’ve made a technologically advanced illustration for you to help you visualize it!

Yes! Those are Twistables!  The latest in crayon technology!

I’m thinking of buying one of these:

                                                                   Or maybe just scuba gear.

School students were dismissed early on Wednesday (after the school decided that it wasn’t safe to transport them home in buses—huh??), and roads became covered in water so quickly, that some kids didn’t even make it home and spent the night at school.  Since the start of this thing, some of us have had ruined basements galore, a boil water advisory, and no electricity, we’ve seen a submerged Pizza Hut, two dead bison at the local zoo, and plenty of newly opened sinkholes (we live in an area abundant in porous limestone) and Facebook has been alive with stunned gawkers, whiny reporters, and nosy lurkers as folks post devastating  photos from around the area.  Like these:

Thank you, Facebook Friends.  You are totally better than any news report.

It’s not funny, and it’s not a joke, and I really feel for those (like my parents and in-laws, and many, many friends) who’ve had to bail the water out of their basements one bucket at a time (my father-in-law estimated it took him 150 trips up and down his stairs).

We’ve had it rough around here too.

I’m so glad that I’m kidding.  We’ve watched the basement carefully but so far so good. We need to conserve our water, but not boil it, and our electricity outages have been fairly short.  And since school was cancelled yet again today, the kids have decided to practice their sloth impressions.  They’re getting mighty good at them too.

Oh!  They did move at one point…

Boys.  Maddie and I think they’re totally dumb.

There are also a bunch of really cool looking mushrooms around now.




And if we didn’t already have a pool, we could go swimming in our backyard…



I wish I could send some of this rain to Texas or Oklahoma since I know things are dry, dusty, and dire there.  All I know is we are ready to say goodbye to Lee and Katia and send them on their happy, floody ways.   Sunshine?  What the heck is that?   Even Herbie is getting depressed.  I think.

To my local friends…stay safe and dry.