Water, Water Everywhere

Once again, we had a crazy amount of rain yesterday -- six inches in the area where my dad lives. This (above) was the scene not too far from his house. A lake in someone's front yard! We've had so much rainfall that the water has nowhere to go. The ground is saturated.

I had lunch scheduled with some friends in South Tampa, including one who was driving all the way from Orlando. I contacted them in the morning as the rain poured outside, and said, "Are we sure we want to do this?" But we went ahead, even though parts of South Tampa are notorious for flooding, especially when high tides in the bay back up the storm drains.

I got some advice on which streets to take and got down there without too much trouble. There were a few occasions when I had to drive my trusty rental car very slowly through several inches of water. I did not try to pass the street above. See that disabled white car? Someone made a bad decision.

In fact, I got to my friend's neighborhood about a half hour early, so I popped into a Salvation Army thrift store and found a great t-shirt for 99 cents! Woo hoo!

My friends Cherie, Lynn and I -- and Cherie's two young daughters -- wound up having a fun lunch. I've known Cherie and Lynn for decades, from back in my earliest days of newspapering. They realized that they were wearing the same shade of nail polish on their toes, called "I'm Not Really a Waitress." Cherie readily provided the bottle so I could join the club for a group photo. (That's Cherie's daughter at the top, who was doing some kind of patriotic thing of her own.)

I only painted my big toe. And yes, I removed it before I went home. I only brought sandals on this trip and I wasn't ready to walk around for another nine days with one big red toe hanging out there.

Anyway, by the time I got back in the car for the journey home, the rain had stopped and driving wasn't quite so perilous. Today I think we may actually be rain-free!