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June 15,1998
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late afternoon in the rainI was talking to Julie on the phone a few minutes ago. She called to tell me about Ned's mother, but I had already seen the obituary yesterday. In the middle of our conversation, the heavens opened up. Rain came down like it had been pressurized and the pressure valve had just been loosened. It's not like we weren't expecting rain. The weather dudes on radio and tv have been warning us since last night that it ain't over yet. The flood warnings turned to flood watches during the dry part of today (dry being a relative term meaning it wasn't raining, not that anything was actually dry). Julie said she'd reserved internet time on the library computer, which she would now have to cancel because it was raining too hard to walk there (Tom's teaching tonight so is not home to drive her). I offered her a ride but then both of us thought better of it. I was going to go to Andover anyway to pick up my laundry but the pointlessness of picking up clean, dry clothing in the deluge finally bubbled up to the conscious part of my brain. There is something rational about being a weather wimp: your clothes and books stay dry. Earlier today, when it wasn't raining, I drove up to Salem,NH to go to Barnes & Noble. Big mistake. Rt. 28 was flooded in spots and the traffic trying to get around the spots was unbelievable. What should have been a 10 minute trip took half an hour. By the time I got there, I figured I'd damn well better buy something after all that. I found what I wanted, a quick-and-easy guide to Javascript and a book on exercises for arthritis. Back home through the floods was another half hour, so I basically took most of the afternoon for a quick errand. Grrr. This morning I was inclined to disbelieve the weather warnings because it wasn't raining and the little pond behind the hardware store up the street had receded to the back of the hardware store parking lot from its previous level of halfway across the street. I was wrong. The forecasters who have been constantly saying "more by morning" are right. bug updateInstead of doing any useful work or reading any of my vast collection of unread books, I browsed the web in search of information about the bugs invading my house from the starling nest. Bingo! They're bird mites. They bite humans. That explains the itch on my arms. They are not known to transmit any human diseases (at least in Iowa). So I'm back to step 1: get rid of the birds. I figure they have about another week before they fledge. I've taped over as many holes and cracks and crevices as I can find and sprayed with pyrethrin repeatedly but still a few mites get through. I want to wait it out, fight a holding action, until the birds are fledged. interludeThe rain is setting off the neighbors' car alarms. What is the point of car alarms anyway? Everybody ignores them. Are they supposed to startle the thief - or the raindrops - into running away? it stopped raining againThe rain stopped for awhile so I went out to CVS to get some anti-itch cream to put on the mite bites. The streets are wet but mostly not flooded. I didn't go check the Shawsheen this time. Once again, my ISP is not answering. Maybe the phones are wet. |
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