Fiber Corner

Daily life of a knitting designer/publisher of handknitting patterns

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

What a Week

Last week was one for the record books. We started off Sunday, 6/8, with flooding rains. Received nearly 5". Unusual, but we've dealt with that much before.

More unusual, was waking up in the wee hours of Wednesday, 6/11, and hearing a strange sort of a cracking noise outside. People talking outside, at that hour, was kinda strange, too. So, I figured it was worth getting out of bed and looking out the window to see what was going on. Could not believe my eyes when I saw flames shooting into the sky--higher than the treetops.
The garage of the house two doors down and across the street went up in flames with both their vehicles inside. It was an incredible and scary sight! If you look in the upper right hand corner of the photo at the green house, you can see how their shutters were melted from the fire's heat. Luckily, no one was hurt and the fire didn't spread to their house.

Then on Thursday, 6/12, more storms were predicted for the area. Long about 3:30p, it started thundering and the rain started pouring down. The ground was so saturated from the previous heavy rain that it quickly started building up.

The elementary school across the street usually looks like this. They play soccer and there's a baseball diamond just to the right of this shot where they play little league games.
At about 6:30p, it looked like this.
The water was already up and over the curb. It poured down rain for 8 more hours! (accumulated to an additional 6") The streets started looking like rivers. And, the houses soon were surrounded with water.

The dirt and debris behind my car shows how high the water level got. You can generally park two cars in the driveway so it was way above the sidewalk.
I was really worried whether water would fill our basement. We were very, very lucky! When most of the neighbors had at least 6" of water and some had 10 feet (their entire basement filled!), we only ended up with less than an inch in one corner as a result of the storm sewer backing up. And, the garden, though soggy, was not under water.

The next block over has a huge pond covering all their backyards.
A couple of huge, probably 80 yr old trees were casualties as the ground around their roots was so saturated that it just couldn't hold them up.

The school yard looked like this. No soccer for awhile.
And, the playground submerged, too. Didn't stop the kids from playing in it. They put on their swimsuits and had a grand time.
None of this can compare, of course, to what is going on in Iowa. Or what happened to those houses down by the WI Dells when Lake Delton vanished and swept them along with it. But, we're still a little uneasy. We've had Fire...and Flood. What's next?...Pestilence?

The fibery delivery this week was a braid of merino from PigeonRoof Studios on Etsy. It's called Venetian.
Pretty colors, but it was so tightly braided when it arrived, that I feared it would get compacted. It did fit into quite a small package, so perhaps that's why she prepares them that way. Probably wouldn't matter if one was going to spin it right away, but it will have to wait it's turn around here so I quickly rebraided it.

And, what's this? a finished object to report! Nothing better for stress knitting than going around and around in circles on a sock so I picked up my second Blue Hawaii sock and finished it up.
Spindle spun in the fractal technique and knit with my basic sock recipe. Definitely fraternal twins. As Mel would say, the mismatched stripes make me a little twitchy. But, it was such a fun project from beginning to end, that's it's kind of sad to see it end.

Let's hope this week is a little calmer.

6 Comments:

At 8:58 AM, Blogger Lynda said...

Oh Vicki, how scary for you! Well at least around here things are draining. We still have streets blocked off because of flooding but you can see that things are starting to dry up some. A friend's little boy was going to take canoeing in summer school but the river and mill pond are so flooded and rough that it is just too dangerous for a skinny third grader!

 
At 11:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's a lot of water. Your mosquitoes will be big enough to cook on the grill like steaks.

 
At 2:49 PM, Blogger Melanie said...

Too much water! It must have been very scary seeing it creep up over the curb and up your driveway.

I commiserate with your twitchiness, but those socks are very pretty. I bet they make your feet very happy.

 
At 5:48 PM, Blogger June said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At 5:50 PM, Blogger June said...

OMGosh! It's just all too much to deal with! I'm surprised you haven't started on your second pair of "fraternal twins"! I think spinning would be my only calming influence with that much water around me!

A good friend of mine makes her socks mismatched on purpose! See how wonderful it all can be?!

Hope you are drying out now and on to better things -

 
At 11:06 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Girl! I chose a good week to visit dry Denver! The farm weathered the rain with no more water in the basement than is usual. I was afraid the new crias would float away but their mamas kept them safe. Glad your house was ok...you don't need anything more to worry about. Bought some fiber at Estes Park. Gotta get out the wheel.

 

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