A hard rain

In all my life, I have never seen a rain like the rain I saw today. On the way home from school, my kids and I stopped in CVS, and when we emerged, it was raining. Which is an understatement, but I don't have a word for "raining so hard there was more water pressure than my bathroom shower". It actually hurt. The streets were quickly pooling with water. Puddles became pools. It seemed as if cars that were parked on the street might begin to float away. Because we had some grocery shopping to do, the kids and I decided to make a run for it and head on over to the Associated Supermarket next door to CVS. But it was freezing in there, and we were soaked through to the skin. So, when the light changed, we decided to make a run for it again, this time across the street to Biscuits and Bath, where we sometimes take Lewis for doggie day care.

This is where it became somewhat frightening. There was nowhere to cross the street because the street was like a river. After standing in the downpour and surveying the flooding long enough that we missed our walk signal, I realized that we were going to have to tramp across the newly formed 81st Street River, like it or not. Thoughts of Hurricane Katrina started to permeate my consciousness, and I really wanted to be home, safely in my not-ground-floor apartment. First though, we wanted to make a stop at Biscuits and Bath, to rest from the rain. But when we got there, it was flooded. The water outside of it was knee deep. And inside the storefront, there was six inches of water.

Adam began to cry. "The water's going to get up to the ceiling! We have to get out of here," he begged. You have to understand...Adam is normally fearless. This was very disconcerting.

So, we booked out of there and made our way home, which is where we are now. I don't hear the rain anymore, but I can't bear to look outside.

YC