Water, water everywhere

The bulbs and plants that I ordered for fall planting have been arriving since early October. I didn't want to plant them then because it was still so warm. I like to wait until later in the month when the weather and the soil has cooled down. Now I can't plant them because it has been pouring rain for days.

Much like New Orleans, the state of New Jersey is slowing disappearing under flood waters. We are not below sea level. We are just overdeveloped and the water literally has nowhere to go. As more and more land is paved for roads and parking lots, there is less and less land to absorb the rains. Instead, it collects on the roadways making driving extremely hazardous. Communities that have been foresighted enough to provide adequate drainage are causing a different problem. All of those storm sewers empty into the local rivers which cannot handle the increased volume of water. The rivers overflow their banks higher and higher each year as more and more water is poured into them from the inceasing roads and parking lots. Communities that have existed peacefully on the riversides, sometimes for centuries, are flooded and in some cases destroyed.

And still it rains. It has been raining for a week now. Hopefully it will stop this weekend. Then we just have to wait for the rivers to crest. For the flood waters to finish draining into our swollen rivers and streams.

I have been fortunate. My town and my house are far enough away from the Raritan River that I don't have to worry. My basement will get a few inches of water in it when the ground has reached its maximum capacity to absorb water, but that is a small price to pay compared to my fellow New Jerseyans whose homes are completely underwater.

I have suffered only one casualty this week. Me. I have a tooth that has bothered me on and off for years. My dentist had been unable to figure out what the problem is or even which tooth it was. Tuesday night, it started to ache. I was fortunate enough to get into the dentist's office Thursday afternoon. It was obvious which tooth was hurting. What wasn't obvious what was causing the pain. After poking, squeezing (?), blowing air on it and applying cold, he determined that it is fractured and that I will need root canal. Thanks to his examination, what had been a minor, annoying ache had turned into a throbbing nightmare.

When I got home, I noticed a lot of birds around one of the feeders. I checked it and discovered it was nearly empty. I store my birdseed on my basement steps both for convenience and lack of storage space. In my haze of pain, I forgot that wet shoes and stairs are never a good mix. My feet flew out from under me and down the stairs I went. I managed to catch the banister about a third of the way down and stopped my fall. It's funny the things you think about when you are hanging from a banister in so much pain that you are nauseous. I kept thinking "I'm all alone. There is no one to call an ambulance. I have to get to the phone". Of course, once I made it back up the stairs I realized that if I could climb stairs, I didn't need an ambulance. I limped into the living room and laid down on the couch until the pain had subsided enough so that I could breathe. I kept moving the leg that I had landed on to make sure it wasn't broken. Then I stood on it, then walked on it, then noticed that I had completely forgotten about the pain in my tooth!

I filled the birdfeeder and went to bed. When I got up this morning it was still raining.