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Once again, it was duck weather around here this morning ! Humans in the Mid-Atlantic region may soon be evolving into web-footed creatures with fins. History indicates species do evolve over time to adapt to their environment. Ours is WET - WET - WET !!!
Our neighborhood is now approaching 30” of rain in the last 8 weeks. Normal rainfall for that period is about 6”. Flash flood warnings are up almost daily. Folks are starting to ignore them, regarding them as “nothing new.”
There are a few good points to all this rain, though - We all now have waterfront property which should give it a higher market value. (Of course, most of the access roads are also under water every few days.) You can go crabbing right in your own front yard. Fresh fish is also cheap. Just open your door. They’ll swim right in and you can simply reach down and grab them. (What? Haven’t you watched “Hillbilly Hand fishing o TV, yet?)
Maryland farms, once known for tobacco, and recently struggling to find something new can now consider growing rice as a cash crop. I’ve even heard the water lilly may replace the Black-Eyed Susan as the State flower.
I miss being outside. There are usually so many wonderful Fall festivals around us this time of year. So, far, we’ve been to none. If they’re not held in a field, you’ve got to park in a field. We no longer have fields. We have swamps and mud bogs. The Big Guy refuses to take his car there.
Unfortunately, we don’t own an all-terrain vehicle. We did, however, try off-roading in my mini-van two years ago. I convinced him it was a nice day and we went to an annual craft fair held on a farm. We both had enjoyed this event for years, first as sellers and then as customers. It hadn’t rained all week before the fair. The field we parked in was fairly solid when we pulled in. After shopping there for several hours, many cars had traveled back and forth forming some muddy ruts on that parking lot (formerly grassy field). It had become one humongous mud pit.
I handed The Big Guy the keys and said, “You’re driving.” Well, he floored it and we were off. His theory was “if we don’t hesitate or stop, we can make it.” It was an obstacle course of stuck vehicles, pedestrians plodding their way through the mud on foot and tow trucks working to pull vehicles out. We shot mud at least 20’ in the air but we made it to solid ground all on our own!Mud dripped from the luggage racks and side-view mirrors. No one could have told you what color that van was.
We pulled over long enough to scrape some peepholes in the mud on the windshield and made our way to the nearest automatic car wash. Finally, we could see out the window. There was still enough mud dripping, after that rinse, to garner lots of stares on our 70 mile drive up I-95. We ran it through our local car wash two more times that night and hand-washed it the next day. It stayed dingy for yet another couple washings after that.The next day, the kids in the family gave us a “Mudder Award” and served chocolate pudding in our honor.
Yesterday, I looked at the calendar and mentioned, “Brandywine is this weekend.” He simply glared and said flatly, “Don’t EVEN think it!!”
I later heard him mutter to our boarder, “That was scarey that day!”
I hope to get there again someday - maybe we’ll have a drought next year.
