Water, Water Everywhere....

I finally looked at the digital pics I took last week Sunday. This pic was taken after the tree fire (you can see part of the guilty tree's trunk on the right) and the electric company guy had come and gone. The water had already gone down some, amazingly! When I snapped this pic, it was about a foot deep along the fence line (mostly hidden from view along the right side of the pic). It was even deeper after the storms the day before, a week ago Saturday, but miraculously had sunk down into the ground overnight, with just a little bit left the next morning (until the next round of storms came through). That pink "thing" on the tree is a peony that somehow got blown off one of my peony bushes. I mean, what are the odds, heh? It stayed there all week and looked just fine, getting fresh water every time it rained; it was gone when I got home Thursday night.

This morning I ventured into the basement for the first time since the tornado sirens went off last Saturday. Mother Nature did not spare me - I have water in my basement. Not a lot - but definitely more than a little. It appears to be seeping in from the walls and not due to the sump crock overflowing. The sump pump continues to work just fine. With as much water as I've had in the yard, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, and count myself lucky it wasn't worse...

I swept the water to the drain and then mopped up the rest as best I could and sprayed bleach water around, put on the dehumidifier. But it's going to take weeks for the concrete block to dry out. Arggghhhh!

The good news is that I've been up since 5 a.m. and right now, after some rather onimous looking clouds passing over today, the sun is shining and it's not extremely humid, just regular humid. Yesterday was a gorgeous day, sunny and breezy and the air was dry dry dry (my knees finally stopped aching), until the storms came through around 4:30 and dumped another half inch of rain on us. But until that time, I spent hours on the deck relaxing and I finished Michael Weinreb's "The Kings of New York." I also took about a three hour nap - fortunately under the umbrella so I didn't get sunburnt!

Today the smell of rotting vegetation can be sniffed outdoors when the winds shift a certain way, and while the grass looks great out front (cut fresh yesterday), it already needs another cut out back (I finished it up Wednesday night after work). The rains are making everything grow grow grow. We're already being warned about the bumper crop of mosquitoes to expect, carrying the Nile virus. No more running outside for even a minute without bug spray on. Yech. I hate bug spray, but I'm not going to stay inside until the first frost kills the buggers! Most of my chores are already done, including the Sunday trek to the supermarket, so I'll be getting back out to the deck and enjoying the sun while I can. Supposedly the wet weather pattern is moving on after today - I'll believe it when it actually happens! For now, this June has distinguished itself as the wettest month EVER in Wisconsin since they started keeping records more than 100 years ago. Gee, isn't that nice to know.