I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Rain On Me

It's raining, finally. You'd think that after a long hot summer, this would be what we need. Well, in some ways, yes, but in a lot of ways, no.

Yes, because northeastern Ohio is in drought conditions. We have considered enacting sprinkling bans in our village (only had to do that once before). One major rain storm won't help with that (our water supply is something like 300-600 feet below the surface). So rain is good, although we'd rather have it in a week long slow rain instead of the delugue we're getting. Also on the plus side is we've had a few reports in the village about water run-off problems and a quick delugue will help troubleshoot what's happening with that.

No because it's too late for the crops and now creates muddy conditions in the field when the farmers need to be running harvesting equipment. Also, the ground by us is mostly clay, and it's baked hard, so this delugue is just going to run off and cause flooding problems.

And I have a brand new windshield on my car. This is the first rain since that repair and I'm worried about it leaking ("Hi, I come from small worried-people stock").

So I have to sit here at my desk and wonder if the body shop guy will have to utter those immortal words, "So, whose the U-Boat commander?"

Update 08-07-07 2:35pm Just got a call from my streets guy. The power is out in Orwell and he wanted to know if he could purchase a battery operated sump pump (I said yes). Lots of damage from the storm here in Cleveland. People stranded (at least for a short time) because of the intensity of the rain. Lots of basements flooded out. More when I get more.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least your state is not on fire and it's not raining ash, like it was for me last week. We get t-storms and dry lightning (Idaho speak for no rain but lots of range fire starting bolts of fire from the sky.) The other day it was like living in a sepia filter around here.

At least we don't have humidity. Can't bare that humidity thing.

Steve Buchheit said...

Ken, I remember it raining ash when I was a child in NJ. It was very spooky. The Garden State Race Track, an all wood structure about 30 miles away burned to the ground. Ash flakes 8 inches across and less fell like snow that summer evening. Ash snow from a mostly clear sky. It was very bizzare.

We must have gotten your humidty to add to our own. It's like swiming through the air somedays.

Todd Wheeler said...

Sorry to hear about that. We've had more flooding problems than drought in the NE (hello, this is your over-heated climate calling).

Even so, many towns have standing water restrictions due to limited winter snow (hello, this is - oh I said that already). Odd/even days, odd/even house numbers can water lawns, wash cars, etc. Seems to work okay. And I'm sure your concil has considered something like that (sorry, rambling).

Todd Wheeler said...

Council even. Just glad it didn't come out tonsil.

Steve Buchheit said...

Todd, since we don't have compliance officers, we would probably just do a blanket ban. Once the EPA certifies our new well we should be good. It's just the wells aren't recharging as fast as they have.

I haven't heard abotu progress on securing more land for wells (we think we know which direction we want to go). If we can develop the land I'm thinking of, we should be in good condition for water supply.