Mother's Day

Look who surprised me by showing up to take me out to dinner this Mother's Day.

Before we went out to eat, we drove out to check on the emergency spillway.  He hadn't been down since before we'd had all this rain, and I wanted him to see how high the water had gotten.  His first view of the lake, and he said, "Wow!"  I told him to park in that little park at the end of the dam, near the visitor's center.  He just kept saying, "Wow" over and over.  Then we walked over to the emergency spillway.

What with the rain we've had just since I posted two short days ago, it is now in full bore overflow.



There were lots of people out there today.  Some even brought picnic lunches.  Everyone was videoing and talking about the water.  I saw several people I know, both at the spillway and in the restaurant.  Funny, Cody was telling me about this YouTube show that is a sequel to the Karate Kid movies.  He said Johnny and Daniel keep bumping into each other, just out on the street and stuff, and fussed about how unlikely that is to happen in a city of 14 million people. 

I said, "Here in Grenada, every where you go, you're going to see someone you know."  Small town life, eh? 

But I digress.  Watching the water go over, every so often you could see fish getting caught in the current and being washed down the ramp.  I managed to catch one in this video.



I mean, catch on video.  Not literally catch, but we did see one guy down at the bottom bow fishing.  I never saw if he caught anything.  Seeing those fish, I said, "I need to get me a new fishing license!"

We were getting hungry by that time, so I said, "Let's go get something to eat."

On the way into town, we ran by the boat ramp, which is now completely under water.

Again, Cody said, "Wow."  I showed him that little beach I used to take him to when he was young.  I stepped out of the car for a moment to take a picture, and Cody got out and carefully locked the door.  I busted out laughing.  He said, "What?"  I said, "You locked the door and my window is wide open."

When we got back into the car, he rolled up my window, and locked it, so I couldn't roll it back down.  He said, "Whenever any of my friends get into my car, and try to roll the window down, I'm going to have to tell them, 'Sorry, my mother ruined it for everyone.'"

Oh, and he bought himself a new car.  He really needed one, too, as his old one was just about falling apart.  It's a 2016 Toyota Corolla.  I think that's what it was.  He also left the car lot with a job application.  If he were to get that one, he'd get a base salary of roughly $40K, plus commission.  He's about sick of his current job.  He says it's not the work, it's the management.  Boy, I know how that is!

I like the actual work I do.  It's the toxic environment -- mostly caused by poor management -- I can't stand.

Anyway, we were out at the lake, by the spillway, when Cody looked around, sighed, and said, "I can see myself moving back here in 20 - 30 years."  He grew up here.  It's home to him.  I said, "I totally understand.  I'm still trying to get back to Texas."  Which segues nicely into our Sunday, well, it's not quite a hymn, but it fits in with the theme of Mother's Day, and going back home.



Oh, and Cody said, "My plan is to become rich, then I'll move you back to Texas." 

I'll take it.  Any way I can get it, I want to go home. 

Finally, before he left to go back to Memphis, and I saw him off with our standard, "Drive fast and take chances," Cody played my guitar a little bit.  It sounds a lot better when he does it, but then he knows how to play. 

It's Getting Bad Out There

Guess what it's doing? Go on, guess.  I betcha can't.  Betcha...

If you said raining, give yourself a cookie.  I recommend the new Oreo Dark Chocolate.  Those are delicious.

So, yeah, it's been raining for two days, and we still have one more to go.  After work, I went out to the lake to check on the emergency spillway, and there it is.

I parked in that little park beside the visitor's center (for those of you who are from here), and walked across the road.   The water is right there, I'm telling you.

You can kind of see the sheen of it going over in this picture.

And you can see a little better how close it is to going over here.



For those of you not from here, this is not the regular outlet channel.  That is way high, as well.  I probably should have taken a picture of that one, too, but I didn't.  This is the emergency overflow channel.

By the way, remember when I said this is a small town and you have to take your entertainment where you can?  Yep, I wasn't the only one out there.

The two men on the right were talking about back in the day.  I stopped to listen a moment, before going back to my car.  I even had a couple of coworkers tell me to take pictures when I mentioned that I was going to drvie by after work.  It's pretty much the hot topic of the day.  Month...year...

On the way back to my car, I shot this short video showing the current.



It was raining the whole time I was out there.  I had planned on waiting until tomorrow to go do my weekly shopping so I wouldn't have to get out into the rain, but after getting drenched at the spillway, I said to myself, "Well, I'm already wet.  Might as well go and get that out of the way."  And that's exactly what I did.

On the way home, I looked out at that cotton field by Dollar General, at the Papermill Road exit (for those of you who know the area), and it was flooded again.  I remarked, "He might as well plant rice there this year."  It's going to be a rough year for farmers all along the Mississippi River valley.  I read this morning about a levee breaching somewhere in Iowa.  I don't rightly remember where, though.

The good news is, I had electricity when I got home.  Yesterday, I didn't.

I’ll take “People who aren’t appreciated nearly enough” for $1000, Alex.

The answer is, They keep you turned on.

What are electricity people?

I sat there for a moment, not knowing what to do with myself.  I thought, "I'm hungry, I'll cook...dang it!   No problem, I'll just microwave...dang it!"  I couldn't even make myself a sandwich, because I didn't want to open the refrigerator any more than absolutely necessary.  The power had been out since 9-ish that morning, and I didn't want to let any of the cold out.  Thank goodness for that can of Vienna sausages in the cabinet.

While the power was out, I couldn't watch TV.  I couldn't get on the computer.  I couldn't do any of the things I normally do when I get home.  I read a bit, then practiced my guitar a bit, and said, "Hey, I'll look up the next chord on YouTube and learn...dang it!"

At least there was enough hot water for me to take a shower.  It's the little things.  The power finally came back on about 6ish, but by then, I didn't want to have to rush to get a blog post written and published before bed time.  I just caught up on Survivor and went on to bed.

By the way, I've gotten my new strings in, but I'll probably wait until tomorrow after work to change them.  I'm going to have to look that up on YouTube, too, to make sure I'm doing it right.  I'm hoping the extra light strings will be a little easier on my fingers.

Finally, a shout out to my buddy Edna.  She did sooo many parts for me yesterday, I know she was sick of seeing me coming.  When she brought me the last one, she straightened her hair and said, "Remember me in the blog."

Here you go, Ed.  Thanks for putting up with me!

My Hometown

Oh, Christ, whose voice the waters heard

And hushed their raging at thy word

Who walkest on the foaming deep

And calm amidst its rage did sleep

Oh hear us when we cry to thee

For those in peril*

For all those affected by the terrible flooding in Texas, we lift them up in our thoughts and prayers. 

*  Navy Hymn, by William Whiting

The Crik Done Riz

The creek--the gentle, meandering trickle that normally looks like this:

after a night and a day of thunderstorms and heavy rains, now looks like this:

The longtime residents of this area say they have never seen that creek that high. I was standing on the bridge when I took those pictures, and normally you have to look down some 20 feet to even see the water. Today it was nearly up to the bridge level.

The water was so deep in some places

that Cody was able to swim in it.

By the way, that is the neighbor's yard, not the creek. I didn't let him within 100 yards of that thing.

The plant had to close two hours before the end of our shift, because the flooding had gotten so bad that the water had gotten into the high-pressure air compressor. Several of us were standing on the back dock watching the water rise, when I asked the plant manager if he was going to bring in boats to evacuate us. I was joking, but later I found out that one of my co-workers who is a member of the volunteer fire department had to leave. He said that all the rescue workers from this area were being called up. So far, I don't know of any deaths due to the flooding.

This is my back yard. Cody took this picture through the window.

Later, when I got home, I took this one:

And this is my neighbor's yard.

Lake Riverdale has returned!