Playing Frogger

[altivo]

My desk shift started at 5:30 pm yesterday. Thanks to our wide angle view to the north (the entire north wall of the library is glass, and the desk faces it) we could see the very black clouds passing over Southern Wisconsin. I started watching the weather radar on the web at 6:00. Soon every county in the southern tier of Wisconsin had flash flood warnings. The storms extended all the way back through Iowa, angling down to the southwest, and were moving due east. No way they'd miss us. I timed the loop and predicted that we'd get hit right at closing time.

It happened. Ten minutes before closing, the deluge began. Since the internet stations had automatically shut down five minutes earlier, the library was empty. We started locking up, knowing that no one would arrive during the cloudburst.

Waited a while hoping it would let up so we could get out to our cars without being drenched but finally gave up and ran for it. Drove home in near blinding rain. Once I got off the state highway and onto the back roads, I noticed a new phenomenon....

Frogs. Or maybe toads. In that rain, with only headlights, I'm not sure I could tell the difference, but I kept seeing them hopping awkwardly across the road in front of me. Now I do brake for animals, but conditions were extremely slick and I didn't want to slide off the road. I slowed down and tried to dodge them, but it was a miracle if none were squished. I've never seen anything like it before. It was on Standish Road, a two or three mile stretch of north-south pavement lined with small farms of the 10-20 acre size.

The rain continued all night, pretty much. Didn't stop until just a few minutes ago, at dawn. Now the radar is clear. But the forecast is for more rain this afternoon, and "heavy" rain tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night. I begin to think I need the house of Baba-Yaga, you know, the one that had bird legs and could just get up and walk around looking for higher ground. The rain gauge in the dog yard shows about 1.5 inches since yesterday. If they got the same amount at the airport in Rockford, then that brings them within about 0.6 inches of the all time record for a single month. I think it's a sure thing to be broken now.

Gary did come back from Chicago in the evening, because he didn't want to miss his T'ai Chi class. He fed the animals and shut the barns, and made supper. But when I got home at 8:25 the house was deserted except for dogs and cats. Table set for two, food in the oven keeping warm, and his car was gone. He left a note. "Decided to head for Chicago ahead of the storm and try to miss the worst of it. Dinner's in the oven, I'll call when I get there."

So I had supper alone, with thunder and rain crashing over the house in the dark, and worried about my mate driving through blinding rain on the interstate. He did call about 9:30, thank goodness. Two nights alone in the thunderstorms. I used to like that, now I don't. Guess I'm getting old...

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

BBC News 24 were reporting floods in the Mid-West last night. Please keep yourself and your family safe.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your concern. *hugs* We are on high enough ground that there's not much risk beyond getting our hooves and paws wet and muddy, or the nuisance of water on the floors of buildings. Travel at the wrong time can be risky, though.

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

My flight from MSP to Raleigh-Durham, NC last night was delayed and rerouted because of the weather. Lots and lots of lightning till we got well east of Chicago.

There's a reason Texans call a heavy rain a "frog-strangler"...

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

*squeezes a clyde warmly* Well...take care anyway. Rain can be quite cozy if you're not in it, though.

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

Keep high and dry. I've heard of a lot of flooding out your way.

When I lived in southern Arizona, during the rainy season we'd get big downpours. Instead of frogs, though, you'd see tarantulas coming out of the ground and onto the highway.

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

It's been ridiculously wet here lately too. Well, this week was mostly dry anyway. You can always tell it's particularly wet when the Inkcaps and other 'shrooms start breaking through the surface. And they're everywhere right now. Not much flooding just because this is high-ground, but it's years like this I always wonder if the dam will overflow and make Boulder very, very wet,,,

[doug-taron.livejournal.com]

I was out your way yesterday late afternoon. We were attempting a butterfly release in Glacial Park near Ringwood. We aborted the effort before the storm hit (but not before getting drained nearly dry by mosquitoes). The prairie where we have been planning to release is flooded. All of the host plants are underwater. I'm not sure what we're going to do now.

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Wow, I haven't heard a Baba-yaga reference in sometime... I always thought her house was kind of cool... Imagine just being able to up and relocate anytime you wanted.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I usually like rain, and especially thunderstorms. But enough is enough. We've had them nearly every day this month.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I've heard that expression before but just thought of it as a picturesque regionalism. ;p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

This morning I noticed we now have an abundance of slugs. Big slimy ones two or three inches long. They are climbing the sides of the house and barn, presumably to keep from drowning. Eeeww. Normally we see these in April and May, but never this late in the year.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There have been actual evacuations in the city of Rockford when they thought a dam might be on the point of failure. It didn't happen, but even so... I'm not used to thinking about that sort of flooding around here.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I suppose your site selection is limited because you need permits or something? Or is it just that the requirements are very specific?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Actually I'd prefer a gypsy caravan, or maybe an Old West chuckwagon, with a pair of horses or mules. ;)

[doug-taron.livejournal.com]

Yes, the site is where we are permitted to release. The requirelents are also specific- so I sought a permit for someplace appropriate. This isn't a hopeless situation or anything, I just need to put some thought into how to proceed. There may be someplace else on that site (which is huge) that would still work. While we were out there, we saw several frogs that had been squashed in the road. They looked to be a day or two old, so apparently this was happening even before your experience with it last night.

[hrrunka]

Here it's snails, especially after dark...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. Snails don't offend my sensibilities quite as much... Unless I step on one barefoot.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You've probably heard Gary's frog story. North Dakota. Frogs so thick you could hear them splatting on the bottom of the car. ;p

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Yeah, that sounds like you. I always thought a house on legs would be cool, though :P

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Dear Rider.

I had hoped for a quick flight over to visit and comfort, until my weather radar showed a very wide stormfront and I hate instrument flying. Besides, when my wing feathers and body get soaked-through wet, the added weight, drag and loss of lift makes it too much a chore so stayed home curled up in a big pile of fresh hay typing on my special horse-hoof-size keyboard and sipping ice tea from my glass bucket. (No, really)

Imp

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I can just picture myself there beside you, reading or knitting and snuggled up close. It was NOT a night for flying, that's for sure. Tonight isn't going to be either. We had sun for a couple of hours this morning but it clouded back up and the first wave of thunderstorms passed through about 4:30, just as I was trying to get done with an early feeding so everyone would be in and dry and happy. Another brief deluge, but not a lot of accumulation. However, we are on watch for more. Right now the radar shows a line of heavy storms just south of us, but moving due east so it will miss us I guess. Half the state is on flood warnings, alerts, or worse. They're sandbagging the bridges on our main route out of here, Gary says. I passed by there at 1 pm and there was a crew in hip boots poking around with poles. He went by at 4 and says they are piling the sandbags now. That's well downstream of us, but if the road is closed we'll have a long detour to get into town from here.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We saw a modern reproduction of a chuckwagon at a horse show a few years ago. It would have made for neat cozy camping for two people as long as they didn't mind cuddling close at night. It had a zillion little drawers and cupboards to store all the food and pots and pans, and was just really clever. Designed for a two horse team to pull, it looked ideal for trail camping. (Not that I could afford to buy it, probably it would cost about ten grand.)

[typographer.livejournal.com]

Oh, no!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068615/posters

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

Well, no, they weren't nearly THAT large.

[damnbear.livejournal.com]

Typically we get frog migrations on our road during rain storms. Most of the time I notice they're going the same direction (right to left) across the road.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

But... but... don't all the frogs end up on one side of the road then? Except for the ones that get squashed, I mean.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Gad one ram stick goes bunk and takes the front of the drive with it and I miss all this O.O

Speaking of which it's been raining a lot here, a bit north of us was flooding as well O.O Looks like you really did send some of the rain down here, but not enough to avoid the cloudburst.

I haven't read any newer posts yet working back through them so I'm sure I'll get an update further on :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hee. Fall asleep around here and the whole world can move away without you realizing it.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Effing 'ell

I can't take my peepers of anyone for one second without something interesting happening and me having to catch up several days later when its a moot point ;)