Saturday, August 23, 2008

I Need Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

I need Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...the car, NOT the movie. Let's be practical, people.

Tropical Storm Fay passed us without too big a fuss this past Tuesday. However she must have "outer bands" that are INCREDIBLE. Today's the first day we've had real sunshine since then and even our sunny sky is dropping buckets of water intermittently. I swear when I looked out the window this morning the rain was coming down in the closest thing I've seen to an actual sheet of water. It was incredible. Fortunately it didn't last long, but I'm sure it will swirl back around to drench us again...if this week's weather is any indicator.

So I NEED Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...that feul-burning oracle...that fantasmagorical machine. I at LEAST need to borrow its floaties. Yesterday I put in a looooong day at school. (Actually Thursday and Friday both were 12-hour days for me...Monday and Wednesday I limited to about 9.) So I stayed at school yesterday until slightly past 7:30 (which means it was actually MORE than 12 hours...boo hoo, poor me, lol.)

Our playground and soccer fields have been underwater this week ever since Fay passed through. And at 5:15ish yesterday afternoon a lady at our school came and said that I might want to move my car if I planned on staying much longer because the water was rising. I thanked her and she left my room. Not 30-seconds later she poked her head back in my door and said that she'd wait at the door to let me back in (the school was locked) if I wanted to go do that and that my car was already parked in water. (Now that changed things a bit, lol.)

So I went to the door and looked and sure enough, I was parked in water. So I took off my shoes and rolled up my pants and headed for the car. By the time I got to the door of my car the water was around 4 inches above my ankles. Yikes. Felt a little uneasy wading through that. Oddly enough I was afraid of electrocution. (Don't try to make it make sense....I just worried about a down power line or something.)

But I moved my car further from the "lake" and up closer to the school...in the "parent pick-up" circle drive out front. Then I went back in and continued my work.

At 7:35 my friend Ginny looked in my door as she was leaving. (I was packing to go, too.) She told me I had to come see something. I went to the hall and looked out the doors (from my room which is the third from the front of the building.) I could see water filling the yard that is inside the circle drive I parked in. So I'm thinking it's getting higher, I'd better get out and go home.

Back into the class, gather all the boxes of things I need to do for the weekend, and carry them out (yes, feeling like a pack mule). Ginny drives a mini-SUV thingie so it sits higher than my little Corolla. She was waiting to make sure I got out...and then I saw WHY. It wasn't just the yard that was full, both the exits to the drive were under water as was the whole parking lot!

I made it out, but if I'd been there any longer, I'm thinking my little car would not have done the job. So please...Chitty...if you're out there...could you please come and be my car for a while?

I'll even sing all your favorite songs. (Plus some Greg Page favorites.......and Row Row Row Your Boat.)