Monday, May 12, 2008

Water, Water Everywhere

We humans have such a love/hate affair with water. We’re either doing rain dances to end a drought or complaining about basements flooding from the 7" of rain over the past week. Did you ever hear someone say, “That was just the right amount of rain”? Well, maybe, but not often.

It strikes me that water is so essential to life and yet so quick to bring death to hundreds, even thousands in disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the recent cyclone in Myanmar. I can only imagine what it might be like to see a huge wave of water approaching with no place to find safety. That would be my worst nightmare.

There’s a certain helpless feeling even when you encounter a broken pipe or a flooding basement. After years of wringing out towels, we finally invested in a wet-vac just in case.

But what about the month when we will be away in Italy? What if it continues to rain? Or worse yet, we have another freaky accident like the one several weeks ago that threatened to inundate our kitchen. I picture Kimy’s relative’s house with 4' of standing water and water coming out the doors and windows. Yikes!

Already the rain is actually stopping and the flooded streets are becoming passable once again. We’ll dry out the umbrellas for the next deluge. And if it doesn’t rain for a few weeks, I’m sure someone will be complaining.

Meanwhile I feel indebted to the Weather Gods for providing one of the nicest days of the Spring for our Maypole dance. It was sunny, warm, and rain-free, something we haven’t seen a lot of since that day.

10 Comments:

Blogger Steve Reed said...

We've had a lot of rain, but not enough to do damage. (That I know of.) You've described the classic "too much of a good thing"!

Liked your previous post about "The Two Jakes" (a movie title, BTW)! Very cute photo of Reya's Jake in his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!

5:01 PM  
Blogger Barbara said...

Steve -- Yes, I guess too much of anything can be a problem. I've had enough for quite a while!

The two Jakes were really good sports about new places and new rules of engagement (or disengagement as was the case). I thought Jake #1 looked adorable in his ATD!

8:23 PM  
Blogger Kristin said...

I've definitely had experienced damage from the recent rainfall but even a week of flooding while I was in France wasn't enough to make me regret the week in France.

9:17 PM  
Blogger Barbara said...

Kristin -- You have definitely experienced more water damage than anyone else I know! I am sure I would not regret going on vacation even if I did come back and find a problem, but I would hope it would be a little one confined to a small space... puh-lease! We're trying to enlist the help of our next door neighbors to keep an eye on the house with the promise of a nice dinner out upon our return.

9:23 PM  
Blogger Reya Mellicker said...

I'm gonna say it because for me, the storm (now past - it's sunny today) was

THE PERFECT AMOUNT OF RAIN.

Ta-da!!

Water, just like all the other elements, is nourishing and lovely when it's in balance, but too much or too little of any of the elements always causes chaos.

(I'm thinking the basic four elements of air, fire, water and earth.)

Today is going to be gorgeous, a balanced blend of all the elements. All hail these brief moments of balance. They don't last.

8:30 AM  
Blogger Barbara said...

Reya -- Marking it down: satisfied with RAIN! Those who had flooded basements and those hydroplaning on flooded roads might not agree with you. But, you're right, a sunny day quickly puts the rain in the past.

BTW, we were lucky to soak up the excess water in our basement with just a few old towels. No big deal this time.

9:58 AM  
Blogger mouse (aka kimy) said...

you wrote: "what about the month when we will be away in Italy"

re pipes, etc. if you are worried you can turn the water off to your house ... course it won't help if you have a rainy type of flood but is insurance against the pipe or toilet type disasters

12:23 PM  
Blogger Barbara said...

Kimy -- We have a sprinkler system that waters the yard so we can't easily turn off the water.

11:00 PM  
Blogger mouse (aka kimy) said...

there is a way that you can just turn off the water to the washer, dishwasher, and toilets should you worry about hoses....f always turns off the water to the washing machine when we leave for an extended time - it was his sister who had the FLOOD

5:55 PM  
Blogger Barbara said...

Mouse -- Yes, I had already suggested that we turn off everything locally to eliminate the problems you mentioned. That should help quite a lot.

6:10 PM  

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