IT'S BEEN A WEEK!
Well, where do I begin on this week's recap? I mean, the information to pass on to my readers is vast and varied.
I suppose I should start with last week, when I woke up to/with the STOMACH BUG -- I put it in all caps because it swept through our school like the bubonic plague, and I was one of its lucky recipients ... or maybe I should start when it became very evident, very quickly that we, the residents of Frankfort, should go about building arks. The sad part of it is, I'm horrible at conversions, and I, personally, found it difficult to transpose cubits to standard units of measure. So, I abandoned the whole BUILDING AN ARK idea and hoped for the best. Yeah, let's just start at the flood. The STOMACH BUG is just too gross to relive.
By Sunday, the flood warnings had turned to flash flood watches, and the waters were a'ragin'. I've since discovered the true meaning behind the phrase "Lord willing and if the creek don't rise..." cuz, well, the creeks rise pretty quickly when you get 10 bajillion gallons of water dumped on a place that has very little underground soaking up ability to begin with. I mean, what are we all resting upon, any way? Solid rock?
Monday morning shown bright and beautiful, after what seemed like 40 days and 40 nights of rain, and the brilliant sun shed light upon the flooded world around us, and what a flood it was! I'd never laid eyes upon anything so apocalyptic. Granted, I tend to be rather melodramatic, so apocalyptic might be a bit of a stretch, but by Monday afternoon, where ever you drove around town near the river, you saw moving vans backed up to houses ... well, it seemed apocalyptic.
Monday also began our testing window at school ... week one of a three-week stroll down stomach-churning, headache-provoking, alcoholic-induced comas of monumental proportions. It's fun. You should try it.
The struggle became focusing our students on the test when all they really wanted to do was watch hot tubs and park benches and washing machines speed down the river ... that is if they weren't completely stressed out about the fact that their house might flood and wash away. To say that they were squarely is to use the understatement of the century, and we had no idea how lovely it would be to allow them to run around on the playground ... no idea. We're not allowed to let them run around on the playground currently, what with the standing half-foot of sewage currently festering in the back half at this moment.
Tuesday was, by far, the worst day as the novelty of the flood wore off, and we began hearing more and more stories of staff and students suffering through the flood-ravaged banks. The peak of this flood was 42.84 feet. FORTY-TWO point EIGHTY-FOUR FEET ... as in SUPER HIGH IN THE AIR. That's amazing, and it just goes to show how powerful our natural disasters can be. We can prepare ... we can educate ourselves, but when push comes to shove, man! Nature sure knows how to bite back.
The good news is that the waters are receding. I had a more difficult time seeing the boats moored at the docks across the river above the flood wall this morning. Yes! I could see ALL OF THE BOATS above the flood wall on Tuesday! Scary!
The city worker currently manning the flood wall house thingy in our parking lot told me this morning that the water was going down and was measured at 38.8 feet early this morning. Now, begins the clean up. They are recommending tetanus shots for all that will be volunteering to help with the clean-up. I had wanted to help, but I had a bad allergic reaction to the tetanus shot I received 10 years ago, and I was told not to get another one. So, I'm not sure what I will do.
In the mean time, life is slowly returning to normal ...
I think I've hit my quota for excitement for a while.
I suppose I should start with last week, when I woke up to/with the STOMACH BUG -- I put it in all caps because it swept through our school like the bubonic plague, and I was one of its lucky recipients ... or maybe I should start when it became very evident, very quickly that we, the residents of Frankfort, should go about building arks. The sad part of it is, I'm horrible at conversions, and I, personally, found it difficult to transpose cubits to standard units of measure. So, I abandoned the whole BUILDING AN ARK idea and hoped for the best. Yeah, let's just start at the flood. The STOMACH BUG is just too gross to relive.
By Sunday, the flood warnings had turned to flash flood watches, and the waters were a'ragin'. I've since discovered the true meaning behind the phrase "Lord willing and if the creek don't rise..." cuz, well, the creeks rise pretty quickly when you get 10 bajillion gallons of water dumped on a place that has very little underground soaking up ability to begin with. I mean, what are we all resting upon, any way? Solid rock?
Monday morning shown bright and beautiful, after what seemed like 40 days and 40 nights of rain, and the brilliant sun shed light upon the flooded world around us, and what a flood it was! I'd never laid eyes upon anything so apocalyptic. Granted, I tend to be rather melodramatic, so apocalyptic might be a bit of a stretch, but by Monday afternoon, where ever you drove around town near the river, you saw moving vans backed up to houses ... well, it seemed apocalyptic.
Monday also began our testing window at school ... week one of a three-week stroll down stomach-churning, headache-provoking, alcoholic-induced comas of monumental proportions. It's fun. You should try it.
The struggle became focusing our students on the test when all they really wanted to do was watch hot tubs and park benches and washing machines speed down the river ... that is if they weren't completely stressed out about the fact that their house might flood and wash away. To say that they were squarely is to use the understatement of the century, and we had no idea how lovely it would be to allow them to run around on the playground ... no idea. We're not allowed to let them run around on the playground currently, what with the standing half-foot of sewage currently festering in the back half at this moment.
Tuesday was, by far, the worst day as the novelty of the flood wore off, and we began hearing more and more stories of staff and students suffering through the flood-ravaged banks. The peak of this flood was 42.84 feet. FORTY-TWO point EIGHTY-FOUR FEET ... as in SUPER HIGH IN THE AIR. That's amazing, and it just goes to show how powerful our natural disasters can be. We can prepare ... we can educate ourselves, but when push comes to shove, man! Nature sure knows how to bite back.
The good news is that the waters are receding. I had a more difficult time seeing the boats moored at the docks across the river above the flood wall this morning. Yes! I could see ALL OF THE BOATS above the flood wall on Tuesday! Scary!
The city worker currently manning the flood wall house thingy in our parking lot told me this morning that the water was going down and was measured at 38.8 feet early this morning. Now, begins the clean up. They are recommending tetanus shots for all that will be volunteering to help with the clean-up. I had wanted to help, but I had a bad allergic reaction to the tetanus shot I received 10 years ago, and I was told not to get another one. So, I'm not sure what I will do.
In the mean time, life is slowly returning to normal ...
I think I've hit my quota for excitement for a while.
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