Freedom cat and prison cat

    One of these cats ranges freely and makes trouble in the neighborhood. One of these cats isn't allowed out and makes trouble in the house. One feels sad about Amelia's restricted life, but she never even tried to go outside until Harry came around. And when she does try to go out, she never goes past the porch. I suspect that she is only unhappy with the indoor life insofar as she has to share it with Harry.
    On the other hand, since I live a largely inside life myself, it would be easy to be jealous of Harry's life. Granted, I would skip the killing and eating things though. ("Dude! There's somebody who wants to feed you all. the. time. You don't have to kill or eat things!") Still, I seem to be having a pretty good time as an indoorsman, and now that most of my trails are open again, I'm starting to feel a little more normal. Also I don't have Harry's tree-climbing ability.
    Someday, I want a home with such cool climbing stuff that the cats don't want to go outside. Then I'll go! In the meantime, I think I'm maintaining a good enough balance that I'm not jealous of either of them. Much.

Flood victims need candy!

    I went to Publix for some odds and ends and to buy Hallowe'en candy. The latter wasn't a high priority item, since most years nobody shows up to trick-or-treat. (The sign on the fence reading, "Please be careful of the minefield" couldn't have ANYthing to do with it!) And I found that there wasn't hardly any. The manager happened by and we commiserated. During the flood, he said, they had all that candy in back and they were kind of sweating it, thinking they'd be stuck with it all. But apparently that isn't the case. I don't think we all decided that this is going to be an expecially heavy trick-or-treat year; I bet a lot of it went down gullets. Regardless, though they were tragically out of Baby Ruths (THE VERY IDEA!), they still had peanut M&Ms. Heck, even though I can't eat this stuff anymore I still like getting things I used to like. I'll probably be giving it all to Paul Sunday anyway. I was expecting to be texting him to ask about his preference, but peanut M&Ms were pretty much the only really good thing left. As ever, I'm not kidding myself that this is of any consequence; just a little weird.

Well golly!

    Actually it was "Jesus Christ!", but that probably isn't cool for an entry title and I used "Eeeek!" yesterday. I went to West Columbia Riverwalk today. I was well-pleased to find it open and that the amphitheater was unhurt other than missing a stage. (For all I know it may have been dismantled before the flood; it wasn't all that elaborate.) I got down to the Gervais Street Bridge and saw signs that the boardwalk north of there was closed. Then I saw why; it was largely gone. So I was trying to get the perfect juxtaposition of Trail Closed sign with trail actually being nonexistent and was backing and circling and looked behind me and saw a banana spider the size of my hand.
    This was when I said, "Jesus Christ!" And no, it wasn't the size of my hand. Nor was it a banana spider, strictly speaking, but a golden-silk orb weaver, which we-uns call banana spiders because of the shape of their heads. (In the rest of the world, banana spiders are tarantulas that are found on bananas.) She was the size of my palm, though, if you include her legs but not my fingers. She took a pretty alarming picture also with the Trail Closed sign included, suggesting that she did it.
    There was an art teacher and some art students at the next picnic table along. I had to show somebody the picture, so I did. Twenty feet away, you could still clearly see the effing spider. He went to investigate, so I guess I did right to tell him.

Eeeek!

    This WAS going to be about how it's been a month since the flood and I'm just getting to walk on my favorite trail (well, legally) and I'm just finally making spaghetti again. But then I walked on my favorite trail and got carried out to sea by mosquitoes. The odd thing is that when I walked there the other week when it looked open but wasn't, I had no problem with mosquitoes. This indicates that the little bloodsuckers were maybe engendered more by the more recent set of rains than by the actual flood. Or possibly that I'm getting more attractive. Or alert.
    So the point was going to be, not in any critical way, that it's amazing that it took so long to clean up from nothing but water. And the point actually is that, you know, they could have dragged their feet a little bit. That trail didn't need to be open yet after all. (Just kidding; yes it did. And they did a great job.)

Very damn funny

    Mr. John D. MacDonald wrote a great many novels and stories during the '50s and early '60s. Then in 1964 he started the Travis McGee series and started seriously printing money. I never noticed before that he took 1967 off from Travis. Friday, Paul found a John D. I hadn't seen or heard of before for me at Goodwill. It turns out to be the 1967 John D, The Last One Left. He dedicates it to Travis McGee. It centers around a boat called the Munequita. When Travis returns in 1968, he has a new small boat to go with his barge-type houseboat and his Rolls-Royce pickup (just don't even ask) called-- the Munequita. Very damn funny, John D.! Travis does say he bought her at an estate sale and that the previous owner, a man named Kayd ran out of luck out Bahamas way, which is the plot of The Last One Left in a nutshell.
    The title threw me off completely, since he had published collections of his stories under titles "The Good Old Stuff" and "More Good Old Stuff." I figured "Last One Left" completed the trilogy. It was such a very pleasant surprise that it was a novel instead!
    I had many wild, weird, violent, unpleasant dreams last night. You're probably almost as glad as I am that I don't remember hardly anything. There was some instance where I tried someone's coffee and had to spit out a plank and wire. I think that was the relatively pleasant part.

Hiky stuff!

    Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy! This will mostly be a very Columbia, SC centric post, so if you aren't from here, you can bail after the next sentence. Most of my favorite trails have reopened. Yaaaaaay! (Well, you should have stayed for that at least.) Let's see, Canal Park is still closed as is West Columbia Riverwalk. But the central part of Cayce Riverwalk is open. What they call Phase 2 was closed before the flood and is still. That's a favorite place, but at least not something we lost from the flood.
    Old State Road had been closed since the flood and is open again. Reached from there, Phase 3 of Cayce Riverwalk is still closed but Phase 4, reached from Newman Landing is open. Newman Landing isn't, though. Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve is closed but their lot is open, which allows one to walk on the unpaved, closed to vehicle traffic part of Old State Road. This is good, because it connects to Timmerman Trail, which is OPEN!
    So to sum up for those who aren't from here but slogged through anyway, about half of my favorite hiking places are open again, especially the big ones. I was digging walking around in Olympia instead (especially as the tea olive was blooming again) but it's good to have the chance for a little variety. Yaaaaaay!

English to kitty dictionary needed

    As I'm sure I've mentioned before, there is a disagreement of very long standing between Amelia and me regarding the meaning of the phrase, "No kitties on the table!" It's possible that Amelia understands me perfectly except for the "no" part, of course. More recently, there is a similar disagreement between Harry and me regarding the meaning of "Your food bowl is full." It is a truism that is also true that if the cat can see a molecule of porcelain through the kibbles, it isn't full. Amelia has gotten over this years ago, but Harry is a much more dedicated whinybutt.
    Today, the other English problem between me and Harry came up again, the one that makes no sense. That is his failure to understand, "Don't follow me." Don't get me wrong, I would love it if he would follow me on a walk and enjoy it, but he hates it, whines all the way, and yet comes along anyway. So this time I chased him and he ran away a little way, but when I turned around he followed me again. So I went home and he actually went in (which he doesn't always do) and the problem was solved. In future, I'll just Meow at them!

I love it when they understand what I meant...

    rather than what I said. Went to the barber, got all that mess cut off. People were actually telling me it looked good longish, but it was taking two hours to air dry. During the cold snap, that was not acceptable. (This not being the '70s, I'm not buying a blow dryer.) He charged $10; I gave him a $20 and two ones and told him to give me $8 back. Fortunately, he understood what I meant, rather than what I said and gave me a $10 back. I know it's of no importance, but I LOVE it when that happens. Rather, I would if it had ever happened before. So yay.
    Also, now I have an excuse to wear my fake Russian hat. Double yay. This has been a very quiet day, mainly devoted to laundry. My eyes and breathing are awful even though I vacuumed only a couple of days ago, so I vacuumed again. And ran all bedclothes through the dryer for ten minutes. If this doesn't work, I'll have to make the kitties into sweaters. Just the fur!

I won I won I wo-on!

    (Wuh-uhn? Whatever!) Jackson Browne is coming to town early next year towards the start of his solo acoustic tour and the local radio stations have been giving away tickets including, inexplicably, the morning sports show that I listen to. I won't say that I had a premonition or anything, just a feeling that I ought to be ready when the giveaway happened this morning, since I hadn't been earlier in the week. So I found the station's phone number and punched it into the smart phone, ready to hit Dial when they asked the question. They did and I did and I heard ringing instead of a busy signal.
    Now I got this far on a giveaway of Paul McCartney tickets earlier this year, but the first caller answered correctly and that was that. This time, though, the first caller flopped. The question was, "This SEC school got its school colors from Harvard and Yale." I actually remember Tommy saying this on the show some time in the past, but it also helped to know those schools' colors. The first caller knew Harvard's and thus guessed Alabama. I both remembered and knew anyway: Ole Miss. Winner winner, Runnin' on Empty dinner!
    The contest was fun, not a bit nerve-wracking. The only hard part is realizing that you're actually on the air. (I joined the legions of callers sounding like idiots by saying, "Is that me?") The slightly nerve-wracking part was after, because they had a problem with their phone lines in that we couldn't get rid of the studio feed so I couldn't hear the producer and she couldn't hear me. But she got my number and promised to call me back and did a few minutes after the show ended and they have all my contact information.
    It's a little odd winning a prize that doesn't exist yet. (That's why they needed contact information; normally you just show up at the studio.) Tickets won't be printed for months, maybe, she said. But that's cool; I won I won I won!
    This being the last lunch deal day of the Fair and a perfectly gorgeous day (I think we can stop saying that it's Chamber of Commerce weather-- considering and just say that it's Chamber of Commerce weather again) so I went back. I hadn't even noticed that they have animatronic dinosaurs! They were a delight. The Fair in general was a hoot, although crowds seemed very light considering the superlative weather. I hope they pick up before it ends Sunday. (A bye week for Carolina football tomorrow should certainly help.)
    Then I went to Congaree National Park. It turns out that those very peremptory Bridge Out Ahead Detour Now type signs were just for traffic to Gadsden on the other side of the park. Roads to the park were perfectly fine, although the Mosquito Meter read 5 or Severe. I asked the first people I met on the trail, two British couples, if the mosquitoes were really severe. One gentleman said no, they were fine, while one lady said yes, they were awful! I didn't have any problems. It was very, very, very good to be back. You could barely tell anything had happened; water was about as low as it has been throughout our years long drought. It was nice to breathe clean air again. I may go back every day once the Fair is gone.

Lost in Ruritania

    I fixed the bank problem easily and quickly first thing this morning, so figuring that I had been a good boy and deserved a reward, I set out to visit Congaree National Park for the first time since the flood. Boy did that ever not work out! A mile or two past Eastway Park (a neighborhood, not a park), still 10 miles from the park (a park, not a neighborhood) there was a sign saying "Bridge out ___ miles ahead, local traffic only" and a detour that took us up to Sumter Highway (i.e., a ways). A week ago, the park posted on Facebook that Bluff Road was open all the way from Columbia to them, so I don't know if this is a new thing or if local traffic includes 10 miles. Regardless, I took the detour.
    The detour went so far, I thought I was going all the way to Sumter. We actually passed McEntire Air National Guard base (i.e., really a ways) before there was finally another detour sign routing us off of Sumter Highway. I took that and wound up on Bluff Road on the other side of road closed signs. So I was past the park and couldn't reach it this way either. It was an insanely beautiful day so I wandered around something considerable on back roads, but still couldn't get any closer. I saw some nice cows and horses and a pretty church and played an entire 80-minute CD-R. In other words, I could have gone to Charlotte.
    Still, it was a nice drive and in spite of all the closed roads it was good to see that most people out there seemed to have few problems except for closed roads. And DOT is clearly working on them hard, because I saw activity on the other side of all the road closed signs. So maybe I'll try plan A and trust the park's Facebook page and just keep going out Bluff Road tomorrow and see if I make it. Or maybe I'll put it off until another day.
    Last night, I dreamed that my mom was alive and well and living in a huge mansion with my elder cat Amelia, who was not best pleased with the arrangement, especially litter box maintenance procedures. But that was topped easily when I later dreamed that I had been tapped to run for Galactic Senate. I was puzzled as to how anybody with the Galactic Senate would have known of my existence and more so how to go about running for an office when we don't have the technology to contact any other planet, let alone an entire galaxy. I woke still puzzled, but highly delighted by the idea, which seems like a solid movie or novel plot.

That extra blog entry I warned about

    Jeez Louise am I displeased! Dad's estate is out of probate, so I was able to write all five of us substantial checks yesterday. The one I wrote to Anne had the numerals right according to the Bank of America but where I wrote out the numbers as words apparently I wrote a much, much smaller number. (I may be angry, but I'm writing carefully. If I give any details, anybody could guess about how much the checks were for, which probably is a bad idea even on a very lightly read blog.)
    I don't think I've gone that stupid yet, but at least we learn something new. I was always told that nobody actually reads the "numbers in words" line and that you could write, "Hi Mom" there if you felt like it. That turns out not to be true. And if the numbers disagree, rather than check with my bank branch, where everyone knew my intentions, they just picked the lower number. I'm sure I can clear all this up in the morning, but I'd rather be doing fun things. Like, you know, sleeping. Well, anyway, my blog is back to 365 days a year at least. So there's that.

Cooking back to normal anyway

    During the crisis, I couldn't use the water, so spaghetti was out, rice was tricky, steamed vegetables were inadvisable. I started using broth to make my rice, which turned out to be a pretty good idea. It's not quite risotto nor is it as wonderful as I would prefer, but it's pleasant. So the crisis seems to have introduced some permanent adjustments to my cooking style. I'm looking forward to spaghetti again, though, and it was a relief to use a ton of steamed vegetables instead of a couple of cans. And having my peach cobbler muffins again was as joyous as I had expected.
    Last night's dreams were almost real-life-like for a minute there. In real life I had Amelia on my legs and Harry beside me, a surprisingly peaceable kingdom, In dream life, I had a gazillion kittens but I was in an imaginary but more or less true to life building. Granted it had two basements (one with a dirt floor to make a gigantic litter box) but there were no indoor parking garages or train stations. Then an older lady of my acquaintance needed to go to the hospital so of course the house suddenly sprouted ten floors and an elevator. I hope she's all right! And the kittens!

Goin' a little psycho

    This will be brief because of the above. This laptop, the Internet, the hot spot generated by my phone, T-Mobile or Facebook-- somebody is screwing me tiresomely and endlessly. I suspect the latter. So I'm not in a good enough humor to generate good enough humor. However, I was a very, very, very good boy today and moreover could not reward myself with a long walk since all the trails I like are still closed, darn it. So I'll grant myself permission to be brief instead.

Been there, done that

    Some twenty years ago, some government entity put signs all over town near waterways reading, "The 100 year flood level at this location is..." some wholly other depth. I've also seen these in other cities, so perhaps it was the federal government. Columbians were not properly horrified, so when time and vandals brought most of the signs down, few or none went back up again. And I was just thinking that I needed to go around town, now that we've had the 1000-year flood, and get a picture of one, but figured I'd never find one.
    Today, I had a moment of less that perfect clarity and decided that since State Fair traffic had been so bad this weekend, it might be again today, so I decided to walk my electric bill over to the branch office (which is maybe a mile away) instead of driving. Really I'm not quite that crazy, but it was a beautiful day and it was a fair excuse for a long walk. On the way back, I found a 100-year flood sign, and photographed it. Once again, I'd rather be lucky than good.
    What I didn't photograph was a sign on a barbed-wire-topped fence saying that what it was protecting was a laydown yard. Just me, but I would think that if you wanted people to lay down in your yard, you would make it easier for them. People! (Eventually I will look up what a laydown yard is but whatever that might be, I still think it's funny.

Armistice ended

    The other night, I checked on Harry (outside) before I went to bed. Usually he's on the porch and ready to come in, but sometimes he isn't and this was one of those times. Harry has for his year of (mostly) living here has laid claim to my legs for sleeping purposes at night. Amelia seems to have gone along with this. This night, a couple ago, Amelia got to lay on my chest and get a good heartbeat to heartbeat kitten-mother cat experience. This may have gone to her head.
    Night before last, Amelia pretty much put on a one-cat riot while Harry more or less behaved and chased him off my legs once. Last night, it was more of a battle, and she chased him off me several times. I couldn't sleep, partly because of this, and decided to put on the TV and try to sleep in the comfy chair. That wasn't happening either. (Almost did. "Lost In Space" was on. But I couldn't get comfortable, as this was our first chilly night.) Battles continued, but fortunately, they usually settle down once my breathing slows. They are basically good kitties.
    I had the usual odd array of dreams, most of which you'll be glad to hear I've forgotten. Two oddities: instead of a huge dormitory with a built-in subway station I was in a huge law firm/home with a built-in subway station. If my subconscious mind were an architect we'd be lousy with subway stations. Other oddity was that I seemed to have many, many dreams about Boston Blackie. In fact, I only have one episode of Boston Blackie. I guess this supports the idea that one dreams in short bursts that seem hours long. Or maybe I heard the words Boston Blackie from the radio and fixated on them for the rest of the night. Odd stuff, anyway.

Undefeated

    One good thing about the coach leaving mid-season is that there's a chance that the new coach will have a chance to be undefeated for a while. That is indeed the case with Downtown U., although the way they played suggested that this won't be lasting too long. It occurs to me that one drawback of having a coach who says that college players should be paid might be that you get a lot of players who also think that they should be paid. Anyway, that's the way they've been playing, and that's to put it charitably. The new coach probably won't be able to rah-rah them into too many more wins, nor will he likely be able to get the permanent job. But he seem like a good guy and hopefully will find a head coaching job somewhere.
    I don't know who had the brilliant idea of scheduling homecoming during the State Fair, but apparently it didn't end well. The radio guys kept saying that they could see the traffic coming to the game and that all the parking was full and people should persevere but they eventually stopped talking about the stadium filling up. Either people turned around and went home or just went to the Fair instead. I never heard an attendance figure for the game, but it sounds like it was bad. The fair has been set up all month; they could just as easily be open an extra Saturday and then close for a game-day Saturday. Or some damn thing. Or, you know, move the Fairgrounds away from the stadium, like they did with the Farmers' Market. But that's just crazy talk.

Still delighted

    You know, you're going along and then you think of something ELSE you can cook again that you couldn't for two weeks there. Newest one is my peach cobbler muffins. I was just about giddy when I realized that I could make these again. Heck, it's only been two weeks, but it seemed like forever that I had to live campground style. And I most certainly realize that compared to people with troubles, I don't have any. Just thrilled is all.
    Tomorrow, however, will demonstrate some of the drawbacks to normality. Homecoming + new coach + State Fair = unprecedented traffic problems in Olympia. I made it a point to go out and get groceries today; I doubt I'll even try to go out tomorrow unless it's very very early. Again, no problem compared to people with problems. Just a little annoyance.

Releviated

    Oddly, while I was writing yesterday (and, as I said, the governor was talking) she must have announced that the boil water advisory for Columbia had been lifted and I somehow missed it. She was clearly happy about something; that must have been it.
    Regardless, the boil water advisory was lifted yesterday afternoon and there was much rejoicing. I thought it would be tooth brushing that I would be most charged about, but the enthusiastic dental hygienist about whom I blogged earlier also gave me these plastic doo-dads for cleaning between my teeth (G-U-M soft picks) and by the time it was all over, I could barely tell I hadn't been brushing.
    No, what made me happy was that Harry the cat could drink from the bathroom sink faucet again. He could not be made to understand why I wasn't letting him, and he was very happy to get the chance again. And yes, I flushed the hell out of the lines first. The water from that tap only had smelled highly sulphurous, and Internet geniuses assured me that this meant bacteria in the lines. So I ran it until the stink was gone. Harry doesn't seem to have had any ill effects, nor me when I finally did brush my teeth.
    The really silly thing was today when I was going to steam some vegetables and almost went into a little dance. Steaming vegetables is not really an exciting part of my day, but it was just so darn nice to get back to normal! Before that, I dropped by the Fair for another fun kind of normality. I would have gone yesterday, but I had to get a new faucet-mounted water filtration unit once the water was back on. Since they can't even take 100 degree F water, it's not like I could boil the old one. Childishly, I was pretty thrilled about this errand, too.

This facility apocalypse-free for 1 (one) days

    Although we're still under a boil water advisory (or as it's called in the 21st century, a buy water advisory), things are seeming normaller and normaller still everyday. The State Fair opened today, and local TV is actually covering that instead of Floodpacalypse or Spurrierpocalypse. It's a little disconcerting. Where's my wall-to-wall disaster coverage? I don't know what to DO with myself. Also the Cubs are headed for a pennant. A. Whitney Brown warned us about this. Kiss your ass goodbye.
    I've been retro lately, playing Civilization IV Beyond the Sword again more or less constantly. I wish I could say it was because I was enjoying it so. More like, "Darn it, this should be fun!" Beyond the Sword is easier since I can play it without the CD in the computer. I may go ahead and stick the CD in and play original Civ IV, which was definitely more fun. Or, I dunno, grow up and go back to real life.
    I'm fairly charged about the Fair, and it's just $1 to get in today. I usually go at lunch time weekdays since it's effectively free, but heck, $1 is close enough. I'll probably go after supper.
    The governor is on TV saying how well everything is going and what a good job everybody has done. Boy howdy!

Wait-- what?

    To start with, things seem much better here. It's hard to tell, because Coach Spurrier resigned as head football coach so wall-to-wall flood coverage suddenly became wall-to-wall Spurrier coverage. Like I said about the football game, it's kind of hard to get all het up about a coach leaving under the circumstances. Two weeks ago, I'm sure it would have been an incredible shock. But of course I wish him all the best.
    The wait-- what, though (by now I must have used that subject line 10 times) was for a moment at Bi-Lo when the lady two people ahead of me in line said to the checker, "Just to let you know, next time, say 'Hi, how are you doing?' before asking somebody for something," and stormed off. Mind you, she stormed off with her groceries and her receipt. She did storm off to the Customer Service desk, so it's possible that she complained there, too. I have literally no idea what that was all about. The truth is that I don't mind at all when they don't Hi me and perhaps prefer it. The consensus was that she was having a bad day. It was only later that I realized that I should have said, "Just wait: the next crazy person will say, "Don't say, 'Hi, how are you doing?'! Just ask me for the damned Bonus card!" Well it's probably true.

VERY happy for a minute there

    I went to Timmerman Trail (aka 12,000 Year Historical Park Trail, aka Cayce Riverwalk phase 4) fully expecting to turn around and drive some place else. Instead, the traffic cones that had blocked off the parking lot were stacked neatly to one side. I was soooooo happy. I parked and went out for a long, long stroll. I met maybe a half dozen walkers and joggers, which was kind of odd since there was only one other car in the lot. However, there is a medical office building adjacent and SCANA (the power company)'s headquarters are nearby, so maybe they came from there.
    I made it all the way around, almost, when I met a couple of maintenance men. They told me that the trail was closed, that it was in fact dangerous, and I had to turn around. This is insane, as they were telling me that the park was dangerous and I now had to walk farther than if they had just let me past. I now realize that they thought I was parked on the road behind me and if I had stood my ground and explained where my car was, they would have let me by. But hey, I like walking and I'd already seen how not dangerous the trail was. (It was a little muddy, with one tree fallen across the trail, but was about as dangerous as the center of town in the middle of the afternoon.)
    Anyway, I had a terrific, if illegal, walk, and the fact that there are maintenance guys out there, however dedicated they might be to their smokes instead of their work, suggests that someday soon it'll be open again. Judging by them, someday in 2018, but still. By the time I came out, they had put up Closed signs and Caution tape, but they left the lot open. Common sense would have said just to put the cones out again to block the lot, but then that kind of sense has never in fact been common.

Normaller all the time in Columbia

    Although the boil advisory hasn't been lifted in Columbia at large, it has been lifted for large parts of the service area, including last night the area where our go-to Sunday lunch buffet Indian restaurant is located. So this Sunday was a LOT more normal than last Sunday, hitting the same old buffet and the same old Goodwills. I even found some fairly happening corduroys at another thrift we often visit. I could have bought a couple of reasonably awesome jackets for a total of $1.50 but showed restraint given how many damn jackets I already have but never wear.
    Yesterday's rain, as expected, was somewhere between nerve wracking and alarming, but doesn't seem to have worsened the situation any, or at least not locally. Downstream, I think it would be hard to tell, i.e., it couldn't get much worse. EXTREMELY locally, my tap water again smells like a chlorinated pool, which has never been my favorite thing, but at least a) it's normal and b) it suggests that the system is working again, even if the boil advisory is still up and running.
    In cute adorable news, I was walking down Olympia Avenue when somebody's black and white puppy (some kind of terrier) ran out to the median where I was waiting to cross to yap at me. The owner came out to rope him in and motorists were nice about stopping to let us get across. I think the pup was paying more attention to me telling him not to cross the road than he did to the owner, but I probably would think that.

We appear to have survived

    I primarily mean today's rain, but in general we seem to have survived the whole nightmare. It is still raining, and yes, I really did go to the front door, look out and say, "Stop raining!" Don't judge us until you've been through it. The city is increasingly optimistic that the water system will be operating better very soon. I bought cheap toothbrushes so I could finally brush my teeth and throw them away (the brushes, not the teeth) if necessary, which was good for morale. I also bought bottled water. I'd rather avoid Nestle, but it's an emergency, man.
    We had a couple of years where the skies were threatening most days if not everyday but it almost never rained. Today, after the first burst (an inch of rain in 15 minutes by all reports), it has continued threatening but with very little rain. I'm hoping we have a throwback day to those days when threat of rain did not necessarily equal rain. Still worried mostly about downstream effects.
    It sure is a lot more relaxing to listen to football under these conditions. The person who lived and died with a football team's fate seems to be off on vacation, as you can well imagine. Also, I've already declared a moral victory. Hey, we're not down by 50 yet! LSU by all reports have been extraordinarily graceful hosts. Now if only they would loan us some players...

Totally not worried about additional rain

    Nope, not the least bit worried about the possibility of rain today. No phobia at all. Not scared the least bit. Not even the tiniest bit concerned about it. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! PLEASE DON'T RAIN ANYMORE!!! WAAAAAAAAAH!!!
    No really, I am assured that if it rains, it will be comparatively little and comparatively brief. Of course I'm concerned about the impacts downstream, but one day's normal rain can hardly make things much worse. Weather forecast maps showing that the entire state will get rain (again) are just sort of symbolically worrying. Hopefully that won't be the case anyway.
    In local news, there have been no further setbacks in repairs at Columbia Canal and the suggestion is that work should be finished (ok, preliminary work will be finished within 48 hours). Also, they're trying to get water main breaks fixed so that the boil water advisory can be lifted. I note that officially speaking there's supposed to be a difference between a boil water advisory (voluntary) and a boil water order (mandatory). The way they're talking sure sounds like this is mandatory. I don't know why they don't just call it an order.
    In our Dumb John news of the day, I was starting to worry that I might have a fever. Looked at the themostat/thermometer; it's hot! Well that's a relief!

Apocalypse maybe never

    The repairs to Columbia Canal never happened, since another breach opened. National Guard is working diligently to fix everything and somehow water keeps flowing from the taps. The mayor has announced that rumors of an imminent shutdown are false and that they are confident that the system can keep going. That said, I'll probably cross the river to do my laundry Saturday, not out of any fear of water quality but to avoid overuse of water.
    In the rest of the state, things are not good and not going to improve soon. Two-thirds of South Carolina is coastal plain. Columbia is strictly speaking part of the Coastal Plain, but sandhills cross the state right here, so we are significantly higher than south and east and, more to the point, less flat. (We were the beach, they were the continental shelf.) South and east of here, especially the nearer to the coast you get, is really flat and characterized by wide, slow rivers. These are about to get much, much wider and much, much slower.
    Thus, if you want to help, give money to the American Red Cross marked South Carolina Flood Relief. Don't worry about Columbia; by and large, we'll be fine. (Red Cross doesn't rebuild roads and bridges anyway.) But the South Carolina lowcountry is about to see the worst week or two anyone has seen lately. Or so the governor says. I'm hoping like crazy that she's wrong. But all that water has to go somewhere, and they already had much more than their share.

About to get real

    So the city has asked us to restrict water usage (like don't flush toilets or do laundry) because the water supply is down to one day. I personally have near limitless faith in the National Guard and think they're going to succeed at getting the breach in Columbia Canal repaired in time, but I admit and I'm certain that they would agree that it is an element of time pressure that they didn't need. So hi, I live in Columbia, South Carolina, and we may be one day away from The Lord of the Flies. Hello, Augusta!
    All this is even more surreal than yesterday, because otherwise things are going, not fine, but as fine as they could be under the circumstances. The latest dam which was going to fail "not if, but when," didn't fail. I hope they track down the guy who keeps saying "not if, but when" and fire him. What we really need around here is more stuff to panic about. But the weather is again crazy stupid beautiful perfect, so the prospect of the end of civilization within 24 hours is difficult to get one's head around.
    Meanwhile, I got a replacement set of Keen boots, as my old ones had worn out (and one lace popped, but the tread was gone anyway) and a Wes Montgomery/Jimmy Smith CD. The former are working out great; the latter is an insane disappointment since there's so much orchestra that you often can't hear Wes or Jimmy. Even more overproduced than Wes' later top-selling but awful "with strings" records. (Kind of hard to play guitar without them, isn't is?)

Normality becomes surreal

    Everything is the same as yesterday except that the rain has stopped and the sun is out. Oh, and roads are open in Lexington County. So I crossed the river and hit Aldi, Publix, and a health food store and everything was weirdly normal. Yesterday, late yesterday, people were posting pictures on Facebook of stripped shelves at Publix in town. Today, it's like nothing happened at all. This in spite of the fact that Lexington (the town more than the county) was also hard hit. The Old Mill lake's dam broke. The Old Mill, which became a shopping and entertainment complex, was flooded and partly destroyed. The best used bookstore in this area (or certainly the most extensive) is presumably ruined. So kudos to the other retailers of Lexington County. It's weird that everything is so normal but I'm certainly grateful.
    The interesting part of shopping is trying to figure out how to live without trustworthy water. I usually have a simple approach to gluten free living: meat, beans, steamed vegetables, plus rice, potatoes or noodles. Unfortunately, only the first of those is doable without trustworthy water. So I was finding canned vegetables and beans with as little added salt as possible (trickier than you'd think) and frozen meals that are gluten-free, dairy-free and soy-free (about as tricky as you would think). I finally decided that the wise move for rice would be to make a sort of risotto, plumping the rice using low-sodium boxed broth. But what delighted me most about the normality mentioned above was, well, if this doesn't work, I go back and try something else. It's nice living in a country with bounteous supermarkets.

Note: I'm fine

    Living here between the creek and the river, an area where when I moved here was regularly subject to flooded streets, it's funny (emphatically funny peculiar, not haha) that I'm almost untouched. We are under a boil water order, but my water is at least clear and not malodorous. (I'm boiling it, though, believe me.) Friends have the ugly, stinky water, or none at all, so I'm ridiculously lucky. Nor did I ever lose power. This is an unbelievable disaster, however. One good friend lost his house; since dams are still failing, we haven't been able to enter cleanup phase yet. Still, a day or two and we should have a better idea what the situation is. When the Red Cross asks for help for us, give generously, but you don't need to worry about me.
    My longtime favorite park, Canal Park for short or Columbia Riverfront Park and Historic Columbia Canal, has washed away. The canal breached and is gone. This is not just a recreation issue, as the Columbia Water Treatment Plant is there, and many high tension power lines also cross(ed) the park. I'm amazed that I still have water and power. Obviously, this will not necessarily continue to be the case.
    Wrenching the topic wildly away from reality to dreamland, I had a wackily photorealistic dream last night, where I was at my brother's house, offering him my synthesizer and organ like I'm thinking of doing in real life (since he's had piano instruction and I haven't). And he said "(A female name) can't be around those." Apparently, he and his girlfriend 40 years ago had a baby and she's still a baby. Pretty weird even by dream standards, I thought, particularly as everything was 100% real up to that point.

Not that funny anymore

    Yeah, the flood did in fact arrive. Overnight was very bad, all morning has been even worse. There has been flooding all over town and we're probably doing much better than the state at large. Water rescues all over town and apparently in the majority of the 46 counties. There was also flooding in my neighborhood but not on my street that I know of. Anyway it's peaceful at this address. Forecasters think that we only have a few more hours of this. Waters on the rivers will keep rising but flooded streets should recede almost immediately (KNOCK ON WOOD). Fortunately this is not New Orleans or even Charleston; plenty of scope for water to go downhill. No deaths that I've heard of so there's that.

Thank you, sleep paralysis!

    I was having a very run of the mill dream, in the sense that it involved a mysteriously huge college campus apparently designed by M.C.Escher working closely with Rube Goldberg. This time, it was ostensibly the University of South Carolina, or some random other college where the student union is also called the Russell House. This time, though, the Russell House was maybe ten stories high, and Rube and M.C. made it very hard to reach. I was climbing up and down untold numbers of brick stairs without getting any closer, then there was some sort of dealio with an escalator, from which I had to slide down for some reason onto some kind of extendable seat from which I would have to jump. And I was trying, trying, trying to slide down and couldn't understand why I couldn't, since it didn't seem like anything I would actually be afraid of. Eventually, the internal contradictions of the dream just woke me up, and I was SO relieved I hadn't succeeded at sliding off of anything. It was also a relief when I woke up that I wasn't particularly close to the edge of anything.
    Earlier, I dreamed of cats very like my own, though I think I switched around the coloring. I made the tabby into the huge one. He or she destroyed some article of cat furniture by climbing on it. In real life, while Amelia the calico is fairly huge, she hasn't actually destroyed anything except for sweaters, and those by claw rather than heft.
    The storm has been very serious in parts of South Carolina, but hasn't been much of a problem here. I haven't checked whether the banana crisis has continued, but things are so zen I just might. (No, seriously, I need something else; I wouldn't really go out just to look at the banana selection. I don't think.)
    In icky news, it is not squirrels that Harry is killing (he's up to two in two or three days and three overall) but the neighbor's rabbits. I'm sad at the thought that they might be pets and wish I could do something, but I can't keep him in and I've already put a bell on him. Cow bell maybe?

Apocalypse later

    So the rains are still coming, but so far it's just been variations of the same mist we've had nearly constantly for a week or more. Is heavy mist even possible? If it is, that's what we're getting. However, we are assured that in mere hours we will undergo the beginning of an historic rainfall event (forgot the "fall" part before), which I'm totally not going to make fun of because a) rain is way easier to forecast than is snow and b) like I said, I can always make fun of it later if it turns out wrong.
    I was childishly amused by the odd things that were sold out at Publix. Mind you I'm not much for checking the bread or milk sections; presumably they were all gone or low. But bananas? Frozen okra? Dammit, in a weather crisis, you have to have priorities! (That said, I did buy the last two loose bananas, which I probably wouldn't have done without the herd instinct promptings.)
    So bye everybody! It's been fun! Sorry that it's over! Really wish I'd bought that inflatable kayak! Wonder if the Amazon distribution center has any? Maybe I should ask. I could go into the gondola business!

Apocalypse and how!

    There's major instability coming from the Gulf and Hurricane Joaquin coming from the Atlantic, so we're hearing forecasts of a (or an) historic rain event. A week from now, I hope to point out that we have had many such forecasts and they never seem to happen, but for the moment, I'm not doing anything to piss Ma Nature off. Jim Cantore is in Charleston; this is quite worrying enough. If I owned a business with a marquee sign, I'd put up, "We love Jim Cantore! But welcome? No I don't think so."
    The toy organ fits on my breakfast tray (just don't ask why I have a breakfast tray), so I may be able to interest the cats in it, I mean before the power goes out and the house washes away. Anyway, I'll look pretty funny sitting on the floor like Schroeder playing my little keyboard. It is so easy to amuse me.