Today is supposed to be the first full day of summer. By the calendar that is true. By the weather outside, now that's an entirely different story. Since April we have had winter, winter, some more winter, fall, a splash of summer here or there, a smattering of spring and our own monsoon season.
There have been a proliferation of wet, rainy and often violent weather days. I can count on two hands the number of perfectly beautiful days I've seen in the last two months. It doesn't even fill all ten fingers on those two hands!
I'm not depressed about the weather or anything, but I am sharing an observation of the changing weather. Every year seems to be worse than the previous year. If this trend continues, I will have to send my husband out next year to build an ark! Perhaps I should start gathering animals...
But seriously, last week it took me three times the normal amount of time to get to work due to standing water. It wasn't from an overflowing river. It was from the amount of rain that fell in an eight hour period over night.
Streets that normally never have standing water, were covered in several inches of it. The storm drains were unable to take in all of the water and it backed up into the surrounding streets and yards. Traffic had to be redirected around some of the areas, which caused major traffic snarls.
I sat in one spot for twenty minutes before I was able to crawl to the next spot to wait. I had plenty of time to practice meditation while I was waiting to move.
When I was finally able to get around all of it, there were lots of places where the traffic lanes were blocked off by the police due to the high water. Numbers of cars were left abandoned. They had tried to drive through the high standing water and the vehicle's engine had died. Why do people try to do that? They aren't driving Land Rovers.
A police officer escorted me past one area, where almost all three lanes of traffic were under water. I drove on the median to avoid it. Another day I didn't have my camera with me when I should have AND I had forgotten to charge my cell phone! I missed another photo op. I have to start thinking like a photojournalist.
I thought about asking one of the truck driver's stuck in traffic with me to use their CB, so I could let the people at work know I would get there some day! I tried not to drink too much water so I wouldn't have a potty break concern. Luckily I had plenty of healthy snacks with me. Half of which I ate before I got to work.
