Day 2981

The rain is relentless. I woke up several time last night thinking that I heard dripping water. I never sleep well when I'm worried about roof leaks. As it turned out, the dripping noises were all outside. So far, the house is still dry. I was hoping that Dash would go do his business when I was checking on things, but he had other ideas. I knew he needed to pee because he refused to go outside at bedtime. Dash is a stubborn dog though. He was determined to wait until it quit raining. When he finally gave up and decided he needed to go, Janet and I didn't wake up and he pooped in the house.

Today was almost an exact replica of yesterday. There were thunderstorms throughout the night, followed by a brief dry period around sunrise that allowed me to walk Dash. The rain resumed while I was fixing breakfast and continued for the rest of the day. While we were walking this morning, I noticed that the water level in the lake was really high. Most of the piers and boat docks were under water. If this weather continues the way the forecasters predict, we are going to have some serious flooding.

On days like this, the mail always arrives soggy. I almost wish that our mail carrier would just save the mail and deliver it on a dry day. Most of the mail is political flyers these days. I'll be glad when the March primaries are over. We get so many of these flyers that our kitchen trash basket fills up too fast. The candidates must be convinced that negative advertising works. A few of the ads are positive, but most of them just say that their opponent is a lying crook. Nobody has won me over so far.

I've noticed a small leak under the back porch. Since the porch is covered by the same roof that covers the rest of the house, this makes me nervous. Hopefully, this leak is localized and won't spread. There is no way to remove the standing water at this point. The rain is coming down much faster than my pump can remove it. I had a pump running on the carport all day long and it didn't begin to remove all the water. Mother Nature can make you feel powerless and ineffectual pretty quickly.

All this water is going to make it even harder for me to get the roofers to come back. There are plenty of people in Dallas with far worse problems than mine. I see their demolished houses every time I turn on the TV. I have a feeling that my maintenance won't be scheduled until Summer. The roofers are probably already looking at two months of emergency roof repairs before they can get to jobs like mine.

I had a few errands to run today and tried to wait for a break in the rain. I shouldn't have bothered. It was dry when I started the car, but another downpour started before I was out of the driveway. One benefit of a heavy rain is that your car doesn't get muddy. When I returned home today, my car looked like it had just been through a car wash.

If you wonder why I take so many pictures of Cormorants, it's because there isn't much else. The park can be pretty bleak in the Winter. I can always count on the Cormorants. Rain or shine, they always sit on the same rotting log. I wonder if they get bored?

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day