Last night, I stepped outside before the anticipated storm. Just to take a moment to breathe in the smell of the pending storm. You know, just before it rains, there is a distinctive scent that rain is on its way. It is kind of a soothing scent if you appreciate what rain does. All of that pollution in the air seems to wash away after a good rain; nature's drink of choice that quenches the thirst for the flowers, grass and trees. Natures little airborne allergens get weighed down and it leaves a clean scent that must be appreciated.
As I look around, I see lightening bugs glowing here and there. It was such a cool sight to see so many of them out last night. It almost looked like every front yard down my block was decorated with blinking lights normally seen around Christmas time. Little sparkles of light popping up randomly as far as I could see down my street. It was quiet and calm. Looking up at the sky, there was not one star to be seen. Dark, yet dreary was the scene. Well, except for the lightening bugs.
Living in a flood-prone area, everyone was venturing out into their front yards. Not all at once, but there was a few out there preparing to fight the flood threat that happens when heavy rainfall was mentioned in the weather forecast. Having modern plumbing in low lying areas puts us at a higher risk of sewage water to back up into our homes. Sadly, it was not the case years ago. Suburban sprawl has changed over the years. What once had a few homes on that original sewer line, now has additional homes, apartment buildings, condos, town homes and row homes, adding more water to an already stressed system. The only defense is to manually cut your home off from the sewer line, hope the power stays on so the sump pumps keep running, and just wait it out. I call this experience.... modern camping: all the amenities of living in a house, but there is no use of water. It would be really dumb to flush a toilet only to see it back right up into your home via the drain vent that is in the middle of the laundry room. Same goes for washing dishes, taking a shower and doing laundry. Seeing other manually shutting their homes off to the sewer line only reminds me that my home is not the only one going into "modern camping" mode. Some people went the expense for an automatic shutoff system, but there are ones like DH and I that just can't swing the $10,000 for that little piece of mind. At least once everything settles down, we can open that valve and resume a normal existence in our homes with actually using water again.
As the weather channel becomes the #1 thing we all manage to watch, there is nothing more to do than wait it out. At least this round of storms managed to hit while DH was home, so I knew that the full load of stress that happens when a nasty storm is to arrive is not all on my shoulders so I can relax just a little. Somehow, DD's fear fills in the gaps of thinking you can relax and wait the storms out by constantly reminding her that everything will be okay.
As the storm begins, we all look out the window to watch the trees literally bend in the wind, the flashes of lightening, the downpour of rain, and seem to be in awe of nature's wonders. Just moments earlier, we were enjoying the lightening bugs and their little show. It kind of makes us wonder how the birds, bees, bugs and wild animals survive storms like these. Even the ones where actual tornadoes touch down and create mass devastation. While I have not physically checked if our little bird guests that have nests placed in the trees by our home, the ones that were built on the downspout behind the garage and the one on the light on our garage to see if there were no more fatalities that need to be handled before DD goes outside today, I sure hope that they all stayed safe from the nasty storm we had.
What was so interesting last night was the awe a person can feel from seeing light from those little bugs and knowing that we were blessed that the power stayed on. Just having one little light bulb on brought on comfort that cannot be expressed, but seen as we all fell asleep to the sounds of the rain.
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