Anyhoo, back to reality...
If you've lived under a rock you may not have heard that Colorado received a touch of moisture recently. If you don't live under a rock then you may have heard about it and seen a few photos.
Our experience certainly wasn't as dire as some. We're fortunate that our house is built into the top of a hill (or knoll?) so all the water runs down and away from the house. Doug had recently cleaned out our gutters too so it wasn't really an issue, and our roof is newish so we had no leaks.
So the rain started coming down on Tuesday, September 10th, right after the kids and I got home from the school. The boys enjoyed it that evening.
As soon as rain starts falling the boys usually head out to the trampoline. It really poured that afternoon for quite some time. Wednesday we had more rain pretty much most of the day.
Thursday is really when things started becoming a problem. It was still raining when we got up that morning. It was coming down fairly hard. About halfway to the kids' school (it's a 20 minute drive) traffic slowed down to a crawl. We crept along until I saw what I thought was the reason for the delay. The light at one of the major intersections we go through was not working so we were all four way stopping it, which takes forever. Then I saw WHY the lights probably weren't working. The whole intersection was pretty much flooded, especially the right two lanes on each side. One car was even sitting off to the side completely abandoned. I slowly went through the intersection realizing I'd have to find another way home. (They closed the intersection not long after I went through.) The kids were of course late for school, but like an idiot I left them at school anyway instead of just bringing them home and came home via an alternate route.
It continued to rain most of the day so I left really early to go pick up the kids. I needed to put gas in the van and I didn't know how long it would take me to get there. I went back to the school the way I'd come home, which may not have been the best idea. That road was quite flooded too. At one point I drove through a river flowing across the road that hadn't been there that morning. Sorry, guys, no pictures. I don't have a fancy smart phone that takes great photos.
I did get to the school early, and thankfully they were letting us take kids home early. While inside getting the kids another parent told me that the road I'd just come on was closed now because of the flooding so I had to find a THIRD way home, which turned out to be a blessing. It was a pretty good way to come home.
School was canceled on Friday, though I probably would have kept my kids home anyway if the rain was still falling. Friday we didn't get too much more rain, but Saturday it kicked into gear again. I was home so I took more pictures with our camera and even made a video for your watching enjoyment... The hail was insane.
Here's the video of the road outside our backyard. It turned into a complete river during Saturday's storm.
The biggest damage we suffered was to our garden.
Here's a before and an after pic.
Truth be told, losing the zucchini plant wasn't such a hardship. That plant just wouldn't stop producing.
Anyway, the storm wasn't as fun as the blizzard of 2003 when we got 3 feet of snow and Doug got to stay home from work while we watched March Madness. Mary was about 7 months old and I wasn't working yet so it was a fun mini vacation from work for Doug. However, it will be years before we forget this storm too.
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