Spiders to Keep Her Company

I'm still in Wisconsin, but plan A is to drive home to Minnesota tomorrow. I'll have to check the forecast and news first thing in the morning because it is raining, actually, thundering and raining, right now. According to the TV news a few hours ago, many roads were already closed because the water in the rivers and streams was up to the bottoms of the bridges or over the bridges. There is no where for the water to go because most of the area had from 3 to 5 or more inches earlier this week.

I was in town visiting today, but before I left to go back to the old family home in a small town along the shore of Lake Michigan, I turned on the evening news. The counties here were under a tornado warning as well as a thunderstorm warning! I called my sister to inform her that this tiny town was specifically mentioned as in the path of the storm and that people were being warned to take shelter. She had just heard the sirens, so she already knew of the danger, but the TV wouldn't work, so she didn't know the details.

She told me later that she spent about an hour sitting on the basement steps reading. Grandma never called that part of the house the "basement." It was the cellar. Is there a difference implied in these two different words? When we go down these basement stairs, we take along a sort of dusting tool to brush the air in front of our faces, lest we walk into spider webs. And we don't breath too deeply in case there is the stench of a dead mouse or mold spores. Currently, the sump pump is running every few minutes, but even during a dry spell, there is water in several places on the basement floor. We also never dare stand straight up in this basement; well, at least I don't after hitting my head a couple of times hard enough to draw blood.

While Sis was hiding out with the spiders, I was waiting out the storm in a nearby city. I chose a less direct route home because I needed to avoid low spots that might have flooded. I also didn't want to chance driving off the cliff into Lake Michigan because the water has eroded much of the roadside in several places. There was limited visibility along the lake this evening.

The route I took went past several dozen farms. Nearly every farm had ponds in their fields or yards. This ground was already saturated and now there is just no where for the water to go. I can't help but wonder about the farmers' crops and finances after these watery setbacks. This is primarily dairy farm country, and I'm guessing that the primary field crop is corn for feed. The new plants are only a few inches high at most.

Time to tuck myself in, if I'm to make that long drive tomorrow. Dear God, Please send this rain to those areas with the fires and the droughts. Amen