Friday, September 5, 2008

Washed Out


Water--it can be beautiful, serene, relaxing. Or it can be raging, torrential, ruthless in its unrelenting path toward the open sea. This scene is in the Smoky Mountain National Park, of bubbling brook as it meanders its way to the river, and eventually to the sea.

Water has played a big part in local history in the past months. We've had several bouts with flooding rains that have inundated parts of our city, and entire cities in nearby areas. The stories raged on about communities in the midwest filling sandbag after sandbag to build walls to keep the water out, most of the time only to have the walls fail to hold back the relentless waters. New Orleans again girded its loins against another hurricane, luckily only to be smacked with minor wind damage and a small amount of flooding.

Well, that hurricane, Gustav, had to go somewhere, and it ended up in our midwest state, raining itself out into a whimper of a storm. We got many inches of rain in a day. It caused no major damage here, only spoiled some plans. A major golf tournament was postponed, and my plans for what to do on my day off were cancelled! The bike ride was washed out yesterday, and again this morning. I have to wait till next Thursday, my next day off, to try an adventursome bike ride. Hopefully, the weather will hold out and treat me nicely, giving a nice fall day for my adventurous bike ride in the park far away.

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