today i went out to run after assuring myself the house would not flood while i was gone. the water is 6 inches deep in the backyard and over the first step of a possible four steps. the channel next to us is almost at nine feet. it is usually at 2-3. i could not head north as the road was flooded out. not a good sign. it is a half mile to the driving range and i could only go 100 feet or so. won't be hitting balls for awhile for sure.

i ran down the road and up the hill to higher ground. my normal paths were all flooded over, but it is saturday and there were few cars on the streets. down to the rugby stadium and back past the horse barn and then tried to go to the river, but the bike path was under 2 feet of water also. came back up to the main road with its flood barriers in place and did an up and down the streets run for a while until 100 minutes had passed and went home. a good first hour and a tired last 40 minutes. no idea why i am not recovering from these runs. not sleeping well either so i could be a bit overtrained right now, though my morning pulse-usually 44-46, was just 48., normally a sign that i was tired. still, i recovered ok and felt good the rest of the day while walking around town looking for hiking boots.

forecast for the week is rain-imagine. funny, but the east side of the city carries on while the west side skirmishes around with sandbags and barriers. we do neither, but wait. without a car there is no hope of sandbags. the county doesn't deliver or help. we should be ok. it needs to rise 27 more inches to get into the back of the house. the front is lower but safer as more fence blocks it. the car park across the street grows worse and 2 cars are trapped and lost to the water.

interesting way to live. this is the 4th flooding in the past 8 years. it has been declared a flood plain since 1200. they let the people build here. maybe it is time to add some helpful defenses. how many 100 year old trees can they cut down while doing nothing about the floods. as an american i am told i don't understand. they will tough it out and cope. i have always been more of an offensive guy than a let it happen to me guy.

it is their country. i am reminded that alexandria, va floods many times down b y the water also.

interesting to watch the primary stuff from here. i convince myself that no matter how mistaken we were to elect bush, we would never be dumb enough to elect huckabee. takes a second to realize we elected bush twice so maybe we are dumb enough. none of the democrats excite me like i want, but will vote for one of them when the time comes. the republicans continue to be the party of the dark ages.

why i find it so interesting sometimes amazes me, but i have also come to love gardening-is here a connection.

later