Weather Delay

The alarm clock woke me with one of those typical Houston weather forecasts today: Rain, street flooding, etc. The radar picture is bleak, and so I began the search for the two umbrellas I *know* I had at my previous house. I had found one a couple of weeks ago, and I remember thinking, "I should put this somewhere safe." I can't find it, which means I probably took it to the office and put it somewhere safe *there.* Which will not help me walk from the car to the office. (sigh) Thus, I'll wear my extremely lovely & fashionable (but amazingly waterproof) Gore-Tex to work today.

It's been raining off & on since yesterday, and overnight and this morning we have received some hella heavy rain. The very distressing thing about the rain is that it makes me close the Mini's top, and the Mini is really a topless kind of gal. Since I got her in May, I've driven with the top closed fewer than 10 times -- more like six. It was a very dry summer, and Mother Nature is apparently going to make it up by giving us a wet fall. I'm feeling good about having cleaned the gutters.

I leave the house for work at 7:00 a.m. Today I headed out at 6:55 a.m. to give me a few extra minutes for the rain. Before I put the convertible top up, I went out to empty a 10-in.-tall metal pot that's home to a couple of last year's poinsettia plants. Typically on a rainy day it fills with 1 to 2 in. of rain (because I am too lazy to drill holes in the bottom). I emptied it yesterday just before dinner. This morning it was full to overflowing.

While I was emptying the water, I saw some cars down on the neighborhood road where I turn to get out of my cul-de-sac. They seemed to be driving unusually slowly, and I was thinking negative thoughts about people who overcompensate for a little rain by driving so slowly.

Thus, I jumped in Sunny, closed her top and headed out into the wilds. About two houses down (literally) the street, I saw why everybody was driving so slowly. The intersection is a bit flooded. Up-over-the-curbs flooded. Up-higher-than-the-Mini-wishes-to-swim-today flooded. Put-the-Mini-in-reverse-and-go-back-to-the-warm-dry-house flooded.

When I lived in Arizona, we had gully-washer storms during "monsoon season." They would come out of nowhere and dump some ungodly amount of water in a short time, creating some heavy flooding that would go away after an hour or so. Everybody with a brain knew not to drive onto a flooded section of road, because you never quite knew how deep it might be. And yet, every rain storm, there would be footage of a brave rescue of some moron from the car they drove into a flooded road section because they could not wait 60 minutes for the water to go down.

The fun thing you learn about Arizona, tho, is that they turn around and mail those idiots a bill for the cost of the rescue. I love that: You were stupid? You pay for it. Then maybe you won't do it again, and maybe you will tell your dumb friends not to do it, either.

My momma didn't raise no dummies. Thus, it is 7:35 and I'm still home, waiting for the water in the street to get below the Mini's bumper.

Addendum: We had a lull in the rain just after I finished writing. By 8, the street was clear, so I got out just fine. I hope I can get home.... Oh, and my office is a ghost town: They can't get through the flooded streets!