Living in a car wash, where all it ever does is rain

Apologies to Bruce Springsteen, but at some point, two weeks of rain every day is going to make a difference. The Monocacy River is not quite out of its banks, but it is close. This is the north side of the bridge across the river on State Route 355:

And here is the view on the south side of the same bridge:

As you can see, a lot of trees are in the water, even though those trees are normally high and dry. Rained again today -- these pictures were taken Saturday, and we had heavy rain Monday, and decent rain today -- so no telling how it looks now. Might not get down that way until the weekend, but if the forecast holds (more rain), my money is on out-of-the-banks flooding.

Don't get the Springsteen reference? Here:

There are, of course, more positive takes on car washes:

Yeah, when I was in high school, one clap by anybody was all it took, and we were in full Rose Royce mode, doing the "Car Wash" clap. Good times, baby, good times.

Try THIS in your fucking Prius

A good chunk of east Texas is experiencing flooding, as you may know. This is why owning a Hummer is a good thing:

A belated post on rain and flooding -- as if you cared

Last Thursday and Friday we had a huge amount of rain, which led to some pretty good flooding. I missed taking pictures of the best of the flooding, much of which occurred Thursday night and Friday night and made my way home from work a little tricky both nights, and my trip to work Friday morning equally dicey. I had to change my route both days, as certain roads I normally used were underwater. Didn't manage to get pictures of that. However, water was still high Saturday, so while I was out Saturday morning doing my errands, I managed to get a few pictures of the Monocacy River at the Route 355 bridge -- which was closed Friday morning due to high water. Here's what it looked like Saturday morning. This is the east side of the bridge:

And this is the west side:

You can see that the trees on the north bank are swamped. I wasn't able to take a picture of the fields on the north side of the river, which were flooded even almost 12 hours after the peak flood stage.

This probably isn't interesting to anybody but me. If that's the case, please refer to the title of the blog.

Frankenstorm ,after

Having spent yesterday at home, languishing without work (not true -- more on that later) I went back out today to get some after-storm photos. The flood peak of the Monocacy was supposed to be sometime Tuesday, so the flooding here is not at its peak. Still, quite a contrast to the "before" pictures.

This is the southwest view from the 355 bridge over the Monocacy Wednesday afternoon. The river is clearly well out of its banks, even 24 hours after flood peak.

 Same here, with a focus more toward the south (from this perspective, left bank).

 Now looking northeast along the right bank. Hard to see, but the river is well out of its banks on this side, as well.

 Looking northeast, trees under water.

 Wider angle view, same perspective.

Looking down while facing northeast, trees underwater. Usually, you can wade across the river here in less than knee-deep water. Even well after flood stage, not today.

What does all this mean to contract attorneys? The job I would have started Monday didn't materialize. Now, it starts this coming Monday. While doing next to nothing in my area (I seriously don't give a fuck about New York), this storm cost me about two grand. Sucks to be paid by the hour.

Frankenstorm, before

On Monday, while DC was shutting down and any possibility of a new project starting was washing down the drain with all the rain that was falling, I decided to do a quick tour to see what the area waterways were doing. I had to take a few detours because of roads closed by flooding (or, I suspect, expected flooding), but I was able to get a good look at the Monocacy River and its main tributaries. Here is the Monocacy Monday afternoon:

These two photos are from the northeast side of the Route 355 bridge over the Monocacy. The river is high, but not out of its banks.

This photo is taken from the southwest side of the bridge. Again, the river is high, but not out of its banks.

The tributaries, on the other hand, are another story. One of these is Bush Creeek; I don't know the names of the other tributaries, although I think at least one is also Bush Creek, which meanders. In any event, these are all taken from or near some of the one-lane bridges in the area.

As you can see, the tributaries were getting pretty full up on Monday, and often already over the banks. The peak flood stage for the Monocacy was supposed to be Tuesday sometime. The next post will focus on the post-peak Monocacy.