Walking on water

Hurricane Alex.  First named storm of the season.  Was only a Cat 2 (Category 2) Hurricane when it ran ashore in Mexico.  Not really a major storm and it hit ground about 8 hours down the coast from here.  You figure something that far away would not really have any impact on our area.  Wrong.  Hurricanes north of the equator rotate in a counterclockwise fashion with most of the rain/water surge is on the eastern side of the storm (the dirty side).  That means if any storms hit the coast south/west of Houston we typically get a boat load of rain.  It's been crappy all week but the bottom fell out Thursday night.  Yesterday was a solid day of heavy rain/downpours.  Many local spots got 8-10 inches of rain.  Street flooding, overflowing bayous, underpasses flooded, stalled cars, flooded homes, beaucoup traffic accidents.  I had the day off yesterday and went into town in the morning.  Figured I could take care of some business in between the deluges.  I had a front row seat to a nasty wreck at a stop light were a Jeep Cherokee and Toyota Tundra tried to occupy the same time & space unsuccessfully.  Nothing gets the adrenalin flowing like watching an explosion of plastic & steel about 20 feet in front of your hood.  Drivers were ok (pissed but ok).  Trucks were not.  BTW - if you have to have a wreck, having it right in front of the local firestation really helps.  After that show, I figured I would probably be able to take care of business from the house.  Lots of flooded streets, but that's one reason I have the landbarge with high ground clearance.

I mentionned before, the dogs don't like rain.  Claire is pretty good and will go off and hides in the closet or under the bed.  Grayson is the wimp.  He paces to and fro and would try to dig a hole in the den carpet.  During a lull in the rain, I tried to walk them to prevent "accidents".  Even with the streets flooded, Claire still prefers to stick to the streets while Gray likes to cruise through the yards.  He still has a thing for water and will walk through every puddle he can find.  Of course, walking a Golden Retriever in the rain (even a mist) is like walking a sponge.  And nothing is more aluring than that wet dog smell.