Aftermath...revisited

NB:  After all my flim flamming yesterday, I don't know if this post was seen underneath all the reposts and deleted posts and rip-my-hair-out-until-I'm-bald posts.  Here it is again.  And I'm leaving the blog as it stands, for now.   I really have other things to do in my life besides dinking with a new design.  Really, I do.

*******************************************************************

I took the boys to the park this morning, first time since the river overflowed its banks last week. It's beautiful today, though that didn't explain all the activity at the park at 10:00am, especially on a Monday--usually a quiet day.

When a large group of shrieking, hysterical kidlets ran wildly past us on the trail, I put two and two together: Spring Break. Crap. The only thing worse than Toys 'Я Us at Christmas, is the sunny, warm first day of Spring Lunacy Madness Break. Don't get me wrong, I remember that feeling, that amazing sense of freedom, the almost taste of Summer in the air. But that was then, and this is now. Go away rebel hordes. Stop the screaming noise; quit running me off the path, I'm the adult; no, you can't lunge at my dog scaring the crap out of him, haven't your parents taught you how to approach a strange dog? And bloody hell, where are your parents anyway?

[Om, mani padme, hum....deep breath...inhale...deep breath...exhale. Enhance the calm.]

Going in the opposite direction, the boys and I had a nice meander along the river, away from the playground area, and the Harry Potter train (there's an actual locomotive permanently located at one end of the park. It's pretty cool and totally reminds me of the Hogarts train).

I took some photos--yeah, actually had the camera!!--now that the river has receded. It's still raging and roaring, though not overflowing like last week.

Before and Afters.

Just looking at the underside of the bridge gives you a idea of how much water there was...

Love this comparison...

Not only the slope, but the bank was inundated. It's pretty far down to the water here, though hard to tell with all the bushes and shrubs.

This is a good one from the rise. Last week that bench was nearly underwater; this morning there was a man and his dog sitting there.

Nature. You can only stand in awe. And get out of the way as fast as possible when you have to.

**********************************

Last evening, after a gloomy, rainy day, I was standing at the window looking out over the Valley as the sun was trying to break through a bank of clouds. Suddenly, a bright ray speared onto one of the lower ridges, lighting up a swath of green below--and the smoke from someone's backyard fire.

The Valley turns a vibrant, emerald green in the Spring. It's so beautiful--for a few short months, then it all turns brown for the next nine or ten. Ah well. I suppose, like everything else in life, we need the contrast between the dark and light, the good and bad, the...oh never mind, you know what I mean. Basically, without the brown, how could we appreciate the green?