A few views after the flooding...

Click pictures to enlarge!

We are starting on my husband's first full week of retirement. It still has not sunk in that he is not on vacation or something. He stayed very busy the first few days he was off. On one of the days last week, one of the 'bosses' asked Rachel what she thought her dad would think if they called him in to work...I forget what was broken/not working, but they were missing him.
However, he has missed a lot of excitement by being retired...his former place of employment almost lost their new powerhouse. They sandbagged the place today, and also hired someone with a backhoe to dig a big drainage ditch around the powerhouse. They also had to lock down because they lost the alarms on the fence.
We mowed the yard this morn--I did most of it while he repaired our outside light fixtures. There was a little bit of the yard left to do, and I have had a stupid cold or allergies or something, till I just let him finish. He feels weird with me mowing the yard, but the only time I haven't mowed the yard was during the last few years I worked. So I feel weird if I don't mow it.

After doing that, and a couple household chores we decided to go get a bite to eat. I took my camera 'just in case.' And walked outside and immediately knew I was going to be happy to have it along. We wanted to go on a drive in a nearby county, but I was not sure the roads were open...the paper said they were closed unless for emergency. And I firmly believe in staying out of the way when so much else is going on.
So instead we went for a little drive near here...and these are pictures of some that I saw....for one thing, the only brick road I know of. You can tell that the water was up and over it by looking at the plants laid down by the flow of water. This is not a place I see when it rains, so don't know if this is normal or out of the ordinary.

But I feel confident that the fields had been planted, and I think they are a loss. Poor farmers. There is all that expense of seed, etc. plus all the time it took to get the crops in the ground. So much time and labor lost.

The boys

Click to enlarge for better viewing!

I haven't shown the babies in a while...so here are the boys. About the only time they are still is when they are sleeping. Bubbie, on the top does a lot of sleeping. However when he is awake, he likes to keep things stirred up. If nothing else, he likes for us to play chase with him. And he loves Shelby, our old collie/shepherd mix.

Cougar, who I first called Chunky Monkey is still very close to his sister. He reminded me so much of my original cat called Cougar that I was all the time slipping and calling him that, so just decided that was his name. He is even lanky like the original was. He likes to play with his sister, but does not like to play with Bubbie cause Bubbie is too rough.

Like the original Cougar, he can smell fresh hamburger a mile away. They all will eat it, but he begs for it. I tried to snap a couple pictures of the Princess, aka Puss Puss but she just cannot be still. The only way almost to catch any of them is when they are sleeping. I will try again in the coming days.

We have started letting my two kitties and Mother Cat outside, but we make Bubbie stay in. I would rather have them all stay inside, but the two females will run you over to get outside. It is understandable with the mother, since she was an outside cat the first two or three months of her life, till my daughter took her home.

Besides having a fear of one getting run over, they have really interfered with Mama Squirrel. She only comes about twice a week now...and even then is not quite herself. She will come running when I see her and call her name, but once she gets here she is very leery of everything. So I really miss her easy companionship. We used to sit at the picnic table or I would sit on the edge of the porch and she would sit beside me...and she will sit at the picnic table but just not very long. Before she would sit there as long as I was feeding her.

Things I found today...

These are definitely best enlarged!

Even with all the rain, and there was a lot of it, I noticed the first of my Asiatic day lilies had started to bloom. Then walking out the back side walk, I noticed something laying on the concrete. On closer inspection, I discovered it was a petal from my neighbors poplar tree. So later, when my daughter and I took a walk, we picked up three or four and this is a couple of the pictures. But I regret not noticing when it bloomed--their flower is absolutely beautiful! Maybe next year I will watch for it.

...........As for the rain, it is over and we actually had sunshine this evening. But oh, it was so hot and humid when we took that walk. Later we ran to the store and saw where Feather Creek had been up out of the banks south of us about 7 or 8 blocks. I think some people had to be evacuated. It makes me so thankful to be where we are--we didn't even have trouble with water in the basement. Even if it don't rain very much, there is a spot or two just a little comes in. But as for it being a worry, it is not enough to worry about with the dehumidifier down there. And the rest of it is totally dry.

..........Terre Haute had some really major messes. They were calling for anyone with a boat to come help....and calling for neighbors in different areas to come fill sandbags. Some of the major interstates around Indiana were closed due to flooding....and even a state road that is the one my husband always took to work was flooded in one place. Something I have never seen or heard of in the 28 years I have lived here.

Edited to add: I don't know how many times I have changed the appearance of this blog today. Bare with me while I get it till I can live with it. I am also having trouble with spacing between paragraphs....I usually just skip a line but tried that numerous times and would publish it, view the blog and not space between. So I tried indenting the paragraph, only to have the indentation disappear. I finally came up with the periods at the beginning of a new paragraph, but I sure hope I don't have to continue with that.