Heavy Flooding To Ice

What little flooding I showed you this morning (Thursday) was not even a "drop in the bucket" to what happened only a few hours later on Thursday. It rained non-stop from the time I published the Thursday post but around 11:30 it turned into a torrential downpour. It was not the first time I've seen rain like this but it always makes me wonder what might be damaged during times like this. I guess I'll find out later.

It took only 30 minutes for that same field to look like this. But ... I've seen it completely submerged before.

You will not believe there is a huge drainage system under all that water, in that exact spot crossing the field. The system is just overwhelmed with the amount of water coming down plus the flooding from that small creek behind the field.

No, the gutter is not plugged with leaves or stems. It's clean and clear as well as that downspout ... there is just too much rain for that amount of space. "Busting at the seams" as some would say.

You will not believe how fast all that water gone later in the afternoon.

There was no way Stella was walking out in this.

The water is running down the driveway as it should ... no problem there.

This is a problem that I'll have to fix once it is warmer. Someway water from the field is running down the center of the north yard, making that sharp right hand turn right toward the house. I never noticed water in that part of the yard when it was full of overgrown brush, a few small saplings and tall grass like the field. It might have been a huge mistake clearing that part of the yard out 5 years ago to plant grass seed and make it part of the yard.

It's like a river rolling down that small incline.

A little further south, on an incline ... it's been a long time since I have seen this part of the backyard flooded.

It looks like Stella's morning walks will be canceled for weeks looking at that picture but with temperatures dropping to 15° by 7am Friday, it will be all ice by the time we wake up.

Water in the front yard is coming from the flooded north side yard, running toward the culvert next to the highway.

The drainage system running the length of the house on the edge of the yard and river rock is simply overwhelmed. I don't have a basement but a 4' crawl space. I'll be checking the foundation from under the house once the water clears and the temperatures warm up.

Yet ... by Thursday night almost all of that water around the house was gone. I'll take more photos of this area Friday morning.

When I selected all of the flood photos, many more not posted, and made a new album in my Apple Photos program ... I labeled it "Storm 2019" ... once it sorted itself on the sidebar it showed these kind of floods have happened about every 5-6 years. Below are some photos I took in June 2013.

That June storm in 2013 had a lot more rain than today ... even the highway was underwater just a few hundred feet south of my driveway. As you see the area around my mailbox is under water.

The water cut through hard gravel and headed over the bank.

So as I sit here 'Thursday night' or 12:45am Friday ... it's down to 26°, the wind is howling outside and blowing freezing cold air. I have no doubt it will get to the predicted 15° with no problem. Stella and I might be skating on Friday morning's walk.

Some heavy-duty weather extremes happening lately here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Death On Facebook & Floods

Sitting here in a dark house at 10:00am with rolling thunder scaring Stella and an intermittent connection due to heavy rain ... I have a lot to write about today. It ranges from the flooding we are having and a disturbing find on Facebook. I've some some opinions today, so watch out. If you are offended, so be it.

Yesterday afternoon we had no idea what we were in store for. We knew we would have some warm spring temps then back to winter on Friday. I could handle that but the weather had other ideas. With heavy rain last night and the local tv weather telling me to expect 1"- 2" of rain just today, our daily dynamic was going to change. In fact I almost welcomed freezing temperatures and snow when I heard what was going to happen.  Ha Ha

I'm going to ramble all over the place this morning. In between all of this verbal onslaught I will include photos taken this morning and will interject a comment about that photo at times.<

I started a new Facebook account a few months ago for a couple of reasons. (1) easy to follow my sports teams with great photos. (2) A few friends like seeing photos of the hounds but don't follow or have time to read the blog. I don't post a lot of photos there nor do I post them daily. When I do they are the same ones I post on blog but only a few.

So that put me under control of Facebook. I don't like that but I do my best to limit their access to me by not downloading their App on any of my devices. I have some privacy settings but they still insist on telling me who I might know and who I need to add as a friend every time I look at my account. 99.9% of the people they suggest I have no idea who they are. That changed yesterday afternoon

There was someone I knew, that Facebook was suggesting. The problem was he died last March, not quite a year ago. Was his Facebook account left open on purpose? Or did his wife not know his account password, needed to delete his account at the time of his death? Why was his account still active .... HE'S DEAD !!!!!

What was very disturbing to me was as I scrolled his "timeline", there were people from his friends list making posts on his "timeline" as if he was living. Didn't they know he had died almost a year ago? IF they did not know, then what kind of friend are they or were they?

Oh, it gets better or sadder ... depending on your point of view.

All the photos of the hounds from this point and above ... were from yesterday afternoon.

The more I scrolled his Facebook timeline the more pissed I got. When I got as far back as November 2018 I really got confused. Where I really question "what are these f..... people doing!!!!"

It was his birthday where the "Facebook Sickness" exposed it's ugly head, from real living people that were on his friends list. I saw people wishing him a "Happy Birthday - Have a Great Day!!"  (He's dead!!!) One person even wanted to get together!!! Others were doing the same Happy Birthday wishes but adding to enjoy his day in heaven. Or "I know you and ....... are together celebrating this birthday together"

I may offend some reading this but personally I think doing this ON FACEBOOK is just sick as shit !!!! SICK !!!! DEAD PEOPLE DO NOT READ F......... FACEBOOK !!!!

I know that Facebook is such a big part of people's lives. The success to many is how many likes they get or how many photos they can show to the world of where they have been or what they are eating. Facebook is their life, too many people. That does not apply to me.

This death and Facebook is what disturbs me.

I'm fine with some sort of announcement at the time of their death by friends. Those same friends can leave their thoughts or praise for the person that has died. That's fine ..... but talking to dead people on FACEBOOK in current terms or 1st person language almost a year after he had died is a huge problem with me. I think it's sick, and not normal.

Of course it's not all the fault of the Facebook user or friend. (the thunder that just took place scared the crap out of me enough for me to jump a little in my seat). Facebook will automatically send out birthday notifications from that account to everyone on their friends list.

Based on the 123 comments I scrolled through on "his" birthday ... most of them were most likely typed from THEIR timeline when they got the notification .... STILL if you were really a friend you would know that he had died 11 months ago.

Here is the most disturbing part that I have not told you yet.

His granddaughter, in her mid-30's has two boys younger than 7 years old. As she posted the day he died, "they were his pride and joy". That's fine and a very understandable post on the day or day after he died. BUT .... since that time in March, she has posted on his timeline on a regular basis, talking in a tone ad if he is still alive. She gives updates to him on her two little boys. She tells him she misses him. ALL ON FACEBOOK for the world to see because the setting is on "Public" !!!!

I can understand her feelings and working through grief. I know we all handle death in different ways. We mourn death of friends, family members and even our dogs in different ways. I understand the different beliefs of people when it comes to heaven and death.

But really .... is Facebook the place to do all of that? Do they have to make it so public, readable by people that do not know the man, are not on his friends list nor a family relative? All because of the post setting is set to "public" and not "friends" or "friends of friends"???

I understand and will to let people express their grief, etc in a way they feel good about it BUT to me DOING IT ON FACEBOOK IS JUST RIDICULOUS !!!!

So with all of the high tech knowledge of the Facebook employees, engineers, and system ... why can't they automatically delete the account of the deceased person at the time of death or at least within the week of his death? Why can't a spouse or relative send an email to Facebook Support or even a post on his timeline to "delete this account due to his/her death."

Do you really want to mourn and honor the death of a loved one or a family member or even a friend ON FACEBOOK ????  Really ??? UN .... F........ BELIEVABLE !!!!!

Obviously my underground drainage system I installed many many (too many) years ago is plugged with mud, dirt etc where it is not draining as designed. That is never a good thing that close to the house. Installing a new system will be #1 on the list starting this spring.

First thing this morning when I opened the door to let the hounds outside, like every morning, Stella almost knocked me down as she turned around at the door to head back to the living room or bedroom. She had not even stepped outside when she heard the hard rain. So it took a few hours before she finally went outside at my urging.

Notice how she tries to step around the standing water just like she did the ice in the field last week? Today that would be pretty hard to do because the carport floor has water everywhere as well as the backyard. But ... she has to pee.

>Thinking long and hard what to do.

Maybe the driest way to get to the yard is to go the other direction and force a new opening in the wall of the house to get outside.

She finally gives up and comes back to walk around the corner of the house in light rain and a flooded backyard.

She was successful, but it's going to be a very very long day for her .... no walks today since the rain is not suppose to let up until 5pm today.  By that time we might be flowing down the hill.  :) It will be a day of hard rain off and on to reach our newly announced amount of 2" of rain by the end of the day. Maybe more.

Snow possible on Sunday.  :)

My Flipboard account supplied me with a lot to read this morning

I finished reading Team of Vipers late last night. I highly recommend reading this book. I have read all the others that have come out the past year from insiders that left the White House, the book by Bob Woodruff, the book by James Clapper etc. This is the best book of all of them and one that I feel is the most accurate.

I don't want to tell all that this book said .... but ... I found out that the majority of the people that left their jobs working for the President were NOT forced out by him but by the infighting between Trump people from the campaign and friends vs the people from the RNC that were hired by Trump to work in his administration.

My respect for John Kelly drastically changed after reading this book.

After this post I will start reading The Deep State by Jason Chaffetz.

It looks like I have fallen off the deep edge back into the coverage of politics. Sports news good or bad is a lot more fun to follow.

Twitter noticed what the dingbat AOC and Nancy were doing during the SOTU and basically burned both of them from all different angles. Personally I feel that the Democrats are going to investigate their way right out of the 2020 election. Between the constant investigations (5 new Democratic committees start today) and the Socialist Left they don't stand a chance of beating President Trump in 2020.

In the meantime I am very interested in learning more about Howard Schwartz and hearing him speak. It's too bad that most likely the Democrats will do their best to destroy him, his family and his reputation before 2020.

Will it take 3-16 weeks before I can tell if Heidi has an allergy problem with lamb and rice instead of chicken and rice? (lost connection again and hard rain, can barely see outside) So far she shows no signs of a reaction but it's only been a few days.

Let me clarify my policy on making comments. Yes ... honest and opinionated are OKAY .... BUT a tone of arguing or being what I call a snarky comment is NOT OKAY. I'll either delete it when I see it or I will reply with the same type of venom and tone you sent to me. That depends on what mood you catch me in. There are times I hate putting up with bullshit from people.

So if that offends you, you can decide what you need to do because I will not apologize for what I do or say. Basically you blast me I am going to blast you back because I just don't care at that point. If you decide after that you don't want to read the blog ... that's fine too. I don't care.

I'll post this as soon as I get my internet connection back.

I almost forgot this photo. I was going to delete it but then the more I looked at it the more I liked it. Taken last month with the Nikon D3200, no flash, late afternoon. The sunshine and the two colored chew bones were interesting.

I have turned off the tv .... and will step out of and away from following the news ... at 11:48am. Sickening .... total bullshit and a WASTE !!!! I'm DONE with keeping up with political bullshit !!!!

We might have to start building an ark here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Too Much Rain & SOTU

I knew when the skies lit up with lightning late last night that most likely the Wednesday morning walk with Stella would be canceled. I can tell by where the water is standing this morning whether its in my carport or in the fields across the highway, there was too much rain last night and this morning.

How much?

There is enough rain that when I opened the door to take these first few photos, Stella never stood up from her spot next to the kitchen island. She had been sitting there wide awake for the past hour, contemplating what she was doing today. She only turned her head to look at me while I stepped outside. Even with rain boots, there would be no walking this morning.

From the corner of the house the path looked like mud covered with wet slick leaves. I decided to zoom in for a closer look and it was. Standing water.

I had water coming up over the sides of my boots late yesterday afternoon when we took the walk, so I knew this morning the saturation in the field would move up over the top of my boots in some places. That would be an inch or two above Stella's paw.

As I stepped back inside Sella decided she needed to go outside. She wasn't in the walking mood but I thought she would at least go out into the field to relieve herself. That wasn't going to happen this morning, as I stood and watched her move no further than 3'-4' away. She looked at every angle possible and still did not get as far as the yard.

She was barely at the corner of the house when she did an about-face and headed back toward the door. She knows when the field has too much rain and she hates getting her paws wet. If you remember a week ago it was MINUS SIX DEGREES !!! This morning, 53° before we even opened our eyes.

So as I get to this point of the blog, I am thinking I'll wait to see how the day plays out before posting this morning post. I cannot think of anything in the past I want to talk about and hunt through my photo library to find some old photos to post.

I know I said I wasn't going to watch the SOTU but I usually do. The one ballgame I wanted to watch had finished a few minutes past 9pm. I decided to tune in after that game. It wasn't because I wanted to hear what President Trump had to say. All presidents in the past had good speech writers and they all seem to have the same kind of message, this one included.

No, I was more interested in seeing the reactions, facial expressions and just the general interest of Nancy, Chuck, Bernie and the dingbat AOC. An added feature was having Nancy on the tv at all times as the President spoke. What a classic !!!!

I am not sure she had a small handful of almonds to eat before attending the SOTU, but as she chewed her way through the speech it remind me of when I have small bits of almonds in my mouth after eating a handful of them. You know, those small bits of nut that keeps resurfacing inside your mouth ... just enough to chew on, like forever??

That is what Nancy reminded me of ... munching small left over bits of almonds. She reminded me of old age as she would still be standing after everyone in the room had sat back down after a standing ovation, Democrats included. As she stood not paying attention, I could almost see my dad many years ago helping my aging grandmother to her chair.

What a piece of work Nancy is.

Maybe the highlight of the evening was seeing the reactions of Bernie and the dingbat AOC when President Trump said that America would never be a socialist country. I am sure they are both smart enough to know that nothing is "free" no matter how many services you want to give away. Somebody HAS TO foot the bill for the "free" medical, free college, free food and free housing, blah blah blah. Then again, maybe not.

Don't worry, you and I have been paying for years with that small added expense on our phone bill, no matter carrier we use. It's a "government fee" so those same people can have new smart phones and most likely a little help on that monthly bill that we all claim is too high for us. Do they get to upgrade their smartphones for free every two years?

I can't find the picture in my photo files, but it was living proof just how much Bernie hates capitalism as he crawled into his ~$160K sports car a couple of years ago during his campaign. Maybe it's the huge summer home he and his wife bought in 2016 soon after Clinton paid him off to shut up and get out of the way of her campaign march back to upper state NY instead of that southern route to DC.

The dingbat AOC needs to read the latest comments from research scientists that know a lot more about her "Green Deal" than she obviously does. As usual her mouth is faster than the time it takes to research something !!!!! The scientists say there is not enough land available to build the infrastructure needed to have the USA to go 'green' within 12 years. They also say there is not enough sun, water or wind to have everyone on non-fossil fuels. NOT POSSIBLE !!!

They could use nuclear energy I guess. That's a non-fossil fuel. I can't wait watch how that plays out. I have 7 acres behind me. Would that me enough for a "mini" nuclear plant to go with my Mini Cooper?

How in the hell can someone like "the dingbat", and others, get elected to Congress?

I see this morning that Nancy must have made some biblical quotes last night after the SOTU. The problem is, the religious experts claim in the news this morning those verses she spoke of are not found anywhere in the bible ... although Nancy does think of herself as God.

Again ... how in the hell does she continue to be re-elected?

I did catch the "wall comment" comparing a wall on the border, protested by people like Nancy, Zuckerberg, Maxine, and Bernie or the movie stars ... etc ... all have walls around their private residences.

I'll just say that we the people of the USA will see very soon just how much the Democrats are willing to do their f.......... jobs in Congress and get something passed. The offer was extended by President Trump to the Democrats, to have a bipartisanship effort to pass some bills into law for infrastructure, lower drug prices and family leave. Surely they can come to an agreement on all three of those issues.

I hate talking politics, hate watching or listening to them but sometimes you have to, so that is why I am posting this now instead of later.

"Nancy ... could you pass me that bowl of almonds?"  :) I'm going to spend a couple of hours today watching my taped shows Bull and Hometown.

It's wet but nice this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.