Thursday 6 August 2015

More Rain Today

We have had two days of kind of crazy weather. The days were just fine until the late afternoon and then the lightning, thunder, rain, high winds and hail hit. The brunt of the storm lasted for an hour or two, but by then the hail and wind had done considerable damage.

I know you are wondering if me and mine managed to avoid getting wet and pummelled by the hail, and for the most part it was just an interesting storm that had some hail. Other parts of the city and countryside around the city couldn’t say the same thing. One area of the city had many old trees knocked down, blocking streets, damaging homes and property. The underpasses just couldn’t drain the water and hail away fast enough and of course there were idiots that drove right into the waist deep water. Other areas ended up with a foot or two of hail and it looked like winter in August. Some of the farms in the surrounding areas lost their crops completely, having it flattened by the wind and hail. Those crops were just weeks away from harvest. The farmers are insured, but they watched months of work disappear in minutes. The price of food will more than likely rise and if there isn’t feed for the animals the ranchers will have to thin the herds causing the price of meat to soar as well.

There is all of this devastation, but thankfully no one lost their lives. Some had the roofs blown off the apartment building they live in and I suspect there will be considerable water damage there. More than a few basements were flooded, again! Hail damage to cars of course and quite a lot of property damage. I feel for all of those people and wish them a quick return to normal.

The thing that sticks out in my mind after all of the devastation and damage was an image I saw on the news last night. There was a cyclist walking back and forth, thigh deep in one of the flooded underpasses. It seems that he rode into the water and somehow lost his glasses and his bike. The glasses getting knocked off as he fell from his bike into the cold water I kind of understand. What I don’t understand is why this fool rode the bike into the water in the first place. He couldn’t help but see the underpass was filled with water and it would have been very easy for him to use the sidewalk that was free of water. If he couldn’t see there was water in front of him, maybe he should have just let the glasses be washed away and get a pair with a stronger prescription.

What really amazes me is that he lost his bike in the water. The bike should have been more or less attached to his ass and if he could find his ass then he should have been able to retrieve the bike. A bike is a relatively large metal thing that can’t move by itself and should be pretty much where it fell. This wasn’t a river; it was more of a pool. Anyways, there he was on the news walking back and forth in the water looking for glasses and the bike. A passer by jumped in the water to help and together they found the bike and glasses. I might have jumped in to help, but it would be more to find out what kind of idiot this guy was.

I don’t think he should ride anymore, but I also don’t think this guy should ever drive a motorised anything. Walking would probably be difficult for him. At the end of the newscast the cyclist sent out a plea to the anonymous Good Samaritan so that he could thank him in person. I guess a “Thanks buddy” at the successful end of the search just wasn’t in the cards.


More rain today… 

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