That soggy feeling

So, it's been awhile. I'm consistently overtired, and despited wanting to get on and journal or comment on other people's journals, I'm fucking tired.

This past week kicked my ass, too.I'm not  good with time changes anymore; they wear me out. On top of that we had some massive flooding, which did not help me get a restful sleep at all. Here's the thing: if you leave our driveway going right, that's a big dip in the road, and the beavers so it floods at the slightest hint of rain. If you turn left out of our driveway, it's the Shawsheen river, a generally boring slow thin river. But the 8 1/2 inches of rain we got last weekend exploded all the rivers around here. To say they were swollen is a major understatement. We can normally only see the barest edge of the Shawsheen through the trees behind our house. By Tuesday, it was about 15 yards away.

Monday night, they sent us all home from work early to make sure we could all get home. And while the grocery store across the street had it's parking lot swallowed up, our road was still passable.

Cut to Tuesday night. The rain had stopped the day before, and I wasn't that concerned that we had much to worry about. When I got close to my exit from the highway, traffic was stopped. Not moving slow, but stopped, and the exits were backed up onto the highway. No big deal, I thought. I'll just go to the next exit, and come up from the other direction.

Nope. Cops were blocking my 2nd  choice route home, because, as it finally dawned on me, the Shawsheen cuts through Andover too, and if I couldn't get over it in Lawrence, going 2 miles down the road probably wasn't going to be any better. I got back on the highway, panicked, because if the road was flooded where it was high on a hill, the dip 20 feet below was probably impassable, too. Where would we stay? How would I get to the cats? I wasn't too worried about the apartment itself- we're at one of the highest points in the area.

As it turned out, the Shawsheen had overtaken the road, but it wasn't too deep- the highway was backed up because drivers had to go slow, and single file over the two-lane part of the road to get through. When I got to it, since my adrenaline was up anyway from worrying about getting home to my stupid cats, I was terrified of being coming one of those people you see on the news who's car get's carried down the river because they were stupid enough to think they could go through it.

Once I got safely home, I called Anton to let him know not to try the back way, to take the highway even though it was going to take FOREVER, and sat to wait, gnawing my nails. Sure, getting through in my Jeep is one thing, but he drives a lower to the ground Seabring. And I think at that point I was just worrying to worry (once I start, I can't stop! Yay, anxiety disorder!).

But, he made it, and the river backed off a little more every day. We were definitely luckier then people closer to the Merrimack in lower parts of the state, for sure. My boss had about 10K worth of damage to his home, and was still pumping water from his basement on Friday. We've been rewarded with some beautiful weather- yesterday, the first day of spring, was 71. Absolutely gor-geous.

Now, though.  It's starting to cool again and it's supposed to be raining for a few days this coming week. I'm paranoid about going to work and not being able to come home. Or losing power. I hate losing power and it happens EVERY TIME IT STORMS. Massachusetts is not well prepared for the repeat power outages and flooding- it seems like EVERY FUCKING TIME it rains, it floods. Seriously guys? Figure something out!

Off to find a canoe.