The rain, rain, rain came down, down, down.  All Wednesday night, and most of Thursday morning.  It was a drippy, drizzling rain, but the wind died down.  By noon, the sun was out, and it was indeed a welcome sight.

Our electricity blinked a few times, but held, which is a miracle.  We could hear a transformer blow down the street, and our neighbor's generator rumbling.

To let you know how amazing this really is, there were times, when we first moved into the neighborhood, where only two buildings in the neighborhood would lose power -- the school, and our house.  And if school was out, the electric company wouldn't even know if i didn't call.

At the grandparent's house, the generator guy finally was able to get to their place.  Their generator is fine, but water has leaked into the natural gas line.  So there is no way for them to get that taken care of until the water drains off, and the gas company will have to come out.

After waffling back and forth all morning, a "yes, we are coming up" one minute and "no, we won't" the next, Grandpa made an executive decision.  Grandma would go to my brother's house because a trip up here would take too long -- 6-8 hours, instead of the usual 1 1/2.  Then he will go get her on Saturday and bring her up to stay in the hotel.  Well, Saturday, or whenever they come up here, our freezers are cleared out some so they can bring their stuff, if it lasts that long.

Sweetie and all the people who work with him have finally been able to stand down from their high alert.  There were no leaks in the main buildings, their internet is back up, they never lost power, and he had sealed the museum so tight, even to taping the doors shut, that there was no damage at all.

While the actual storm has passed there is still rain expected.  Most of it is of the usual variety we get, the afternoon thunder storm that just moves in or pops up and is gone rather quickly.  We get those a lot in summer, but right now every tiny bit more water adds to the flooding down river, which is not good.

Our town is picking up the pieces and doing quite well, while some places are having to breach levees to drain off the water.  The storm was so slow moving that debris hasn't been picked up quickly enough to allow the water to drain.  Places that have never flooded before are under mandatory evacuation..

We haven't had regular garbage pick up, or mail delivery.  All of that has to await damage assessment, but is expected to resume today.  It won't help us much, as our next scheduled pick up day is Monday, which is Labor Day.  It's a lesson in how much we take it for granted that we will have to wait for next Thursday.

Other people have much bigger problems, so i'm not going to dwell on that.

Right now we are just thankful to the Almighty that we got through it all.



Today is:

Amitabha Buddha Day -- Tibetan and Mahayana Buddhist

Be Kind to Humankind Week:  Forgive Your Foe Friday

Blackpool Lighting -- The Promenade, Blackpool, Lancashire, England (five miles of spectacular lighting; through Nov. 4)

Day of Solidarity and Freedom -- Poland (Anniversary of the 1980 August Agreement)

Eat Outside Day -- as long as you won't pass out from the heat

Eleusinia Games -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate; 3 days of games with grain as prizes)

Festal Day -- Order of the Eastern Star

Festival of Hungry Ghosts -- China (the day, during Ghost Month, that the realms of the deceased are opened and Taoists and Buddhists perform rituals to transmute the sufferings of the deceased)

Freddy Mercury's Montreaux Memorial -- Montreaux, Switzerland (annual tribute to the work of Freddie Mercury; through Sunday)

Full Moon (second full moon of August) related observances
     Adhi Nikini Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka
     Wahgaung Full Moon -- Myanmar

Invent A New Sandwich Day -- spread around the internet like good mayo; go ahead, have fun with this

Limba Noastra -- Moldova (Day of Our Language)

Independence Day -- Kyrgyzstan(1991); Malaysia (Hari Merdeka/Freedom Day, 1957); Trinidad & Tobago(1962)

International Day of Blogs and Bloggers -- www.blogday.org

Love Litigating Lawyers Day -- yes, G-d tells us to love everybody, even litigation attorneys, but He never said doing it would be easy; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

National Trail Mix Day

Native Wild Rice Harvest -- Northern Cree, Ojibwa, and Algonkian Native Americans (celebrated during the August full moon; if there are two full moons, it is during the second)

St. Raymond Nonnatus' Day -- (Patron of babies, childbirth, children, expectant mothers, falsely accused people, infants, midwives, newborn babies, obstetricians, and pregnant women; Baltoa, Dominican Republic; against fever)

Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw And Festival -- Prairie du Sac, WI, US (come try to break the state record of 248 feet; through tomorrow)

World Championship BBQ Goat Cook-Off -- Brady, TX, US (through tomorrow)


Birthdays Today:

Jeff Hardy, 1977
Richard Gere, 1949
Itzhak Perlman, 1945
Marva Collins, 1936
Frank Robinson, 1935
James Coburn, 1928
Buddy Hackett, 1924
Alan Jay Lerner, 1918
Arthur Godfrey, 1903
Maria Montessori, 1870


Today in History:

Traditional date upon which Ayonwentah (Haiwatha) and Deganawidah (The Great Peacemaker) assist the Iroquois tribes in establishing the Confederation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy, or League of Five Nations), 1142
Lewis and Clark begin their expedition, 1803
A nuts and bolts machine is patented by Micah Rugg, 1842
The first professional football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 1895
Edison patents the Kinetograph, 1897
Mrs. Adolph Landenburg, a horse rider, debuts the split skirt, 1902
Debut of Foghorn Leghorn, 1946
Solidarity Labor Union forms in Poland, 1980
Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris, 1997
Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police, 2006