It's raining.
Something nasty stalled over the Yucatan Peninsula. When I look at my radar, I see giant blobs of red and yellow covering from Cuba to somewhere I'd say near West Palm Beach. Smack dab in the middle of all that nastiness are the Lower Keys. My home. My super-saturated home.
We've been getting more rain the last couple weeks or so than I think we've had for this entire wet season. This year, the wet season has been drier than I'm accustomed to. Eventually things picked up a bit rain wise. Then, this past Friday night it began in earnest. Rain. Pounding rain. On my metal roof. The last 2 places I've lived, they've been homes with metal roofs. If you've never lived in a home with a metal roof, its something to experience at least once. The first drops of rain typically hit like bullets. When a storm really opens up, the noise can be so loud, you simply cannot hear much else. I suppose some people would veto a metal roof for that reason alone. Let me tell you though, if you live in a hurricane prone area, you really should re-think that philosophy.... I practically worship my metal roof.
So, Friday night I woke up (yes, I was finally sleeping!) to the sound of rain pounding on the roof. It was so loud it overpowered the TV, and finally I lost my satellite connection thanks to the rain. No TV= no possibility of sleep. Boo his. I got up, patrolled the living room, had some water, checked what was in the fridge (nothing of interest, sadly) and then played with the cats. Eventually the satellite TV came back on, so I was able to toss & turn for a couple more hours of semi-sleep.
Saturday came. It rained all day. It rained so hard, I didn't run. The water began creeping up the garden, up the driveway, and even the pool overflowed. My road had flooded in places too. Winds were whipping hard, and whiteout conditions came and went the entire day. Night began to fall. The rain did not let up.
When Sunday morning broke, it was still raining, but not as hard as Saturday. My friend "J" and I had tentatively made plans to go to Miami (I know, I know... how can that be? I was literally just there on Friday. Its a long, boring story). We decided to give it a go, and if the rain got too bad, we'd turn around and make our way home. We picked our way up the Keys, stopping a couple places to eat and shop. Each time we stopped, we evaluated the situation; "keep going" or "go home" was the topic of discussion. It wasn't so horrible, we kept plugging on, and eventually found ourselves smack dab in the middle of mega-mall hell in Miami. We concluded the entire city was at the mall. Not any mall... the mall we were at too.
We spent way more time in Miami than either of us anticipated. It was dark by the time we were ready to leave. Still raining as we made our way to the car, but not a whiteout. Yet.
"J" has a nice shiny iPhone thingamajig that people get all excited about. She pulled up the radar just before I was ready to leave the parking lot. The entire screen was a huge red & yellow blob, everywhere except for a pin size hole where we were. Within seconds the conditions went from not-too-bad to total whiteout.
I used to drive a lot, long distances, fast highways. It got me in trouble a few times, but never enough, thankfully, to cause bodily injury, or jail time. I no longer drive a lot nor do I drive long distances or fast highways. I make it a point to not get on the Florida Turnpike, no longer do distance night driving, and I never drive freeways in the rain anymore. Never. It was the trifecta of bad last night... whiteout raining conditions, freeway, and nighttime.
The entire drive home, from the Turnpike, through the Stretch, all down the Keys, and into my driveway, it rained. We went through a series of no less than four bands of whiteout rains, in between were "only" driving windswept rains.
We made it back home, and I was so emotionally spent that I ended up staying in bed until exactly 8:30am today (I wasn't late for breakfast, not at all... this was a day off for me, yay). The sound that finally pulled me out of bed was the still pounding rain on my metal roof.
All day today it rained. I went out and had lunch at Good Food in the pouring rain. I drove to get Pop some groceries through flooded streets, and a parking lot with water up way up past my ankles. I got home and continued to listen to the sound of the rain pounding on my metal roof. I went to boot camp tonight, there was a lull, finally, without much rain. Just sprinkles. The sky looked even bright. I was optimistic, but was quickly informed by the other bootcampers it was just a space between rain bands. "More to come" they all glumly said.
They were right.
Its raining now. Pouring. My metal roof tells me so. I hear rain pouring through the gutters spilling into my already full rain barrels. The tree frogs are singing so loud, I hear them over the rain on the roof, and over the sound of the clicking on my keyboard. My neighbor's yards are flooded, the lowlands near me are spilling forth with brackish water, and I haven't seen a Key deer in 2 days at my house. Unheard of.
Rain Rain Go Away
Come Again Another Day
Little Vegan Wants to Play
Rain, Rain Go To Spain
Never Show Your Face Again.
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