hammered

Sunset last night in the rain. It doesn't show how eerie it was, the overcast was yellow, the air was yellow and not a pretty yellow.

I have no idea how much rain we got yesterday late afternoon/early evening/night because this...

in case you can't tell, the rain gauge is topped out so that's at least 7”. It stopped raining sometime around 8 PM I think and the ditches on either side of the driveway are still this full this morning...

Just about the whole yard was flooded, all the low spots anyway and unfortunately all the low spots are around the house, and I kept checking the baseboards of the two back rooms to see if water was beginning to seep in. The field behind us still had water standing this morning.

Late yesterday afternoon the thunder started rumbling in the distance for about an hour, then it started drizzling, then raining with lightning, then it really started coming down, the lights flickered several times, water just pouring from the valleys of the roof and sheeting off the edges. I guess I need to replace the rest of the gutters I had Rocky take down because they were all rusted through so I can direct that water away from the slab.

And the forecast is for more rain today. I really need to get out there and dig some drainage trenches to the ditch. If my friend was correct and we had had 7" of rain in the first 6 weeks of this year and we had maybe close to an inch in the last two weeks and at least 7" yesterday, that makes at least 15" of rain in the first 8 weeks of this year, more because I'm pretty sure it didn't stop just because the rain gauge topped out. That averages 2" of rain a week!

Yesterday the whole day was overcast, dark and drizzly before the rain started in earnest and we all know how lethargic rain makes me. I got one thing accomplished and it took me all day. And part of the day before.

Last year a fellow glass artist, Tone Orvik, who lives in Norway contacted me about a book she and Dr. Max Stewart, a UK glass artist and Head of the Glass Dept. at the University of Wolverhampton UK, are writing a book on pate de verre and invited me to participate. I was surprised that he had heard of me since I'm not very prolific but Tone says, of course he's heard of you. Anyway, I submitted answers to a series of questions and finally heard back from Tone for a review of her edits to my answers and what will appear in the book. It took me all freaking day! And as mentioned part of the day before. I added and subtracted and my first rewrite added 170 words. Oops. I rewrote that thing over and over, whittling down the excess to the point that I was totally confused and had no idea what I had conveyed or what I was trying to convey. So then I rewrote it again ending up with an acceptable extra 14 words. Yay me! Finally sent it off about 7 PM. So now I'm waiting to hear what Tone thinks.

I guess I ought to get out there and figure out some trenches to the ditch. 

I'm hoping one of these prayer flags is for less rain.