When it rains, it pours – Part I

A lot has been happening, basically since Christmas. I was laid off my job and have been unemployed since. Today, my last unemployment check sits in my mailbox and I don’t know what will happen after that. I only mention this in case a local employer is reading this blog. I’m still looking for a career. Please email me.

The little job wanted ad aside, let’s get down to the real gist of what is long overdue for a posting.

A chain of events started on Mother’s Day, with what will undoubtedly become known as the Mother’s Day storm of ’08. For a couple of weeks, the tides ran extremely high. The spring tides were in and the moon was full. Low tide was higher than our normal high tide.

Mother’s Day was a beautiful, warm Sunday with the sun shining brightly all day. If there were any flaws to the day, it was the constant easterly winds blowing in at around 20 mph with gusts over thirty. Easterly winds always bode bad news for Toddville. The winds blow the tides in, even when they are supposed to be going out.

Keith and I spent the day planting our new plants around the pond. Having any sort of garden down here is a challenge. If the salts don’t get to the plants, the constantly wet soil will. From fall through spring, the soil is like a sopping wet sponge. Many plants can’t tolerate hydric soils, as we are slowly learning.

Around five o’ clock in the evening, we finished our planting and headed to Cambridge for dinner and our weekly grocery shopping. By the time we headed home, the rain came down in sheets and the winds picked up to a steady 30+ mph. The stretch of Maple Dam Road cutting through the marshland began to flood.

Unfortunately, we discovered that when I hit the first stretch of water at 40 mph. The car’s battery light came on. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, so I kept driving. We were in the middle of nowhere and a good fifteen miles from home. As I turned onto Andrews Road, I saw steam coming out from under the hood. Keith immediately noticed the temperature gauge running hot.

I shut the car off to let it cool down. I popped open the hood, but I’m no mechanic and only knew that I was looking at an engine. I had no clue what I should specifically look for. The only thing I did see was the radiator overflow cap popped open and no coolant inside. The only thing I could think of was when I hit the water, something happened, but what I didn’t know and why the car battery remained lit I didn’t know.

The stop and go trip eventually got us home. In our mechanical aptitude reasoning, we figured the salt water had splashed onto the engine and shorted something out. The car made it home and we figured once it dried out, it’d be fine.

About an hour later, it stopped raining. I added water to the radiator and we took the car for a test drive. I planned the route to circle around from Tedious Creek Road to Wingate-Bishop’s Head Road to Farm Creek Road to Toddville Road to Bishop’s Head Road to home. All tolled, it was about a five mile course.

We got up to Farm Creek Road with no problem. A short ways down Farm Creek, it began to run hot. For the last half of the route, we had to do the stop-and-go method to get the car home. As we turned onto Bishop’s Head Road, the last stretch before getting home, a tree across the road blocked our path. We had to turn around and go back the way we came.

We made it as far as the docks, still two miles from home. The battery died. We started walking home when an elderly couple picked us up and took us home. The upper part of our road had started flooding – a bad sign.

Keith didn’t believe me, but I insisted that if we didn’t go back and push his car to higher ground, it would get flooded.

“No way,” he protested. “That water was well below dock level.”

I convinced him to hop in the truck so we could move his car. About half an hour had passed since we first left the car at the docks. When we pulled up, the water that was a couple of feet below dock level now lapped over the dock and into the spot where Keith’s car sat. “Oh my God! I can’t believe this in just such a short time!” Keith exclaimed.

We pushed his car to higher ground, called it a night, and hoped for the best।

I got up early the next morning. Worry has a way of cutting into a good night’s sleep. I got out of bed and looked down on our front yard. Water had begun piling in. “Keith, the flood’s coming.”

He jumped out of bed। “Oh no. Is my car ok?”

“I don’t know। We’ll have to go find out.”

Part II Coming in a few weeks – The rising waters, a broken down car, and more rising water

© 2008
Mark Darien
All rights reserved
Please include this copyright notice if you share this article