FLOODS!

It started as a normal, early rainy season steady rain, then became a downpour, then torrential. When I noticed the drainage ditch running across the yard in front of the porch was filling up fast, then seeping into the porch then...!!! YIKES! It's over the threshold!

Instead of my normal response: screeching to Mr. Muscles to go rescue us from Mother Nature, I wrestled with the conundrum: do I just watch all this water come into the house, or do I let him know and watch him and his head cold go into the cold rain, by now becoming hail, and risk pneumonia? Well, that decision was out of my hands when he saw what was happening and sure 'nuff, out he went to rip out rocks, poke brooms into plugged drains, while I dithered around a while before it occurred to me: the towels, dummy, GET THE TOWELS. Finally, I began to fight back the rising tide inside the house, rug rolled up and out of harm's way, chairs up on table, towels tossed down to keep it away from the computers and all their electric stuff sitting on the floor. And SHUT THE DOOR where it's all coming in!

So then I grabbed a bucket and began the toss,soak, wring and toss routine, all the while keeping an eye out that it got no closer to the communication center of the house. Finally, when the back was getting ready to mutiny, the drain in front and also in the back patio were open. (That last one had been blocked to keep rats out.)
Little by little, I made progress in getting the water off the floor, into the bucket, down the bathroom drain.

When the rain calmed down to a steady, manageable pitter patter, I caught sight of something bright yellow, movinng around the garden. It was Ramon, the gardener, who had said he would transplant the flourishing rose cuttings DURING a good rain, so they would make the transition as comfortably as possible. He got his wish. And our Hero is delighted, wrastled Mother Nature to a tie.