over my head
Dan says, "I'm going out to get some milk."
"What? It's a storm out there! Be careful!"
"I'll drive safely"
"Everything's flooded!"
"I'll be fine."
"Don't drive through any rivers!"
"I'll avoid rivers at all costs."
"But don't go so crazy avoiding a river that you drive into a tree."
"I will steer my car between the Scylla and Charybdis of trees and rivers."
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"What on earth are YOU talking about?"
Dan doesn't understand my anxiety, neither I his Odyssean references.
flood update
So it turns out we weren't the only ones to have problems with flooding this weekend. We weren't even the only ones to make Noah's Ark jokes! The storm was actually a pretty major "flood event" across most of southeast New England, a fact that was really only belatedly realized today. I stayed home from work to try and keep ahead of the onrushing waters; that decision was vindicated this afternoon when our governor declared a state of emergency. Yay! Isn't it exciting to be part of something larger than yourself?
Actually, the whole flood scene was pretty exciting, barring the hours spent in the basement and the complete lack of sleep. As someone who likes water, I was happy to see so much of it pretty much everywhere else but in my house; for example, the vigorous overflow of Elm Brook and my little Hartwell Brook (it's in our woods, so we feel proprietary towards it) was something to behold. I didn't take any pictures—fears of destroying my camera in the deluge—but suffice it to say that I went in up to my waist walking along the bank of Elm Brook. It's usually a pretty good drop to the water, too: three or four feet. So seven feet above normal stage? That'll do some damage.
Of course, there were all the other usual flood accompaniments: storm drains spewing water, folks ignoring warning signs and stalling their cars in flooded roadways, journalists hyping the story.... Though actually, I was kind of disappointed in the last one. This was a big storm, after all! Somehow, though, the fact that it was forecast to be "just rain" kept it from getting the "Wintermaggedon" press you might have expected. Or maybe the journalists were just snowpocolypsed out. By proxy, for the local rags: we haven't had any weather to talk about all winter!
The pump (note: now singular, and a longer story than it's worth it to recount) is still chugging away down in the basement so we're not home and dry yet, but tomorrow is supposed to be bright and sunny. As I type this I notice it has just about stopped raining, for the first time in about 58 hours, so that's something!