The rain came down and the floods came up

Today is July 3rd and the Curse of the 3rd has apparently decided to resurface this year, after only a reprieve in '06.

July 3rd, 2003 - Car vs. Motorcycle wreck. Paul worked at Wal*Mart that day. The kids and I had gone swimming at Tater's and came home around 9. Sam answered the phone when it rang and after saying hello, handed me the phone and said, "Oooh! Momma, I hear sirens!" The idiot who caused the wreck had called, screaming, and failed to tell me anything more than "Paul's been run over by a car! Meet me at the hospital!" - not whether he was alive, dead, dismembered, or D) all of the above. He was thrown from the bike, bent the sissy bar to a 90' angle, dislocated his shoulder, skinned up the left side of his body and got four staples in his head. To have been hit by a car running 45mph while on a motorcycle with no helmet on, I don't think he fared too badly.

A week before the wreck, our attic fan shorted out and caught our attic on fire. A few days after the fire, Kady spiked a 105 fever and while it turned out to be a case of Roseola, it was still scary nonetheless.

Summer 2003 kinda sucked.


July 3rd, 2004 - I don't have any pictures of this year's drama. Tornadoes had hit the neighborhood and while we didn't sustain any damage, we were without power for 3 days. It was really hot because duh, it's Oklahoma and it was July 3rd. Since, at the time, we were the only house in the country, we were the house to host the 4th of July festivites and to shoot off fireworks. We held the shindig regardless. Heck, it was cooler outside anyway.



July 3rd, 2005 - Window snake! I had been on the phone with my uncle and just as I was hanging up the phone, I caught sight of this beauty. After I finished peeing myself, I hollered for Paul. The kids were gone, so we both cussed while we (read: he) tried to coax it out from between the windows. We tried a coat hanger, wasp spray and the garden hose. I think it was literally a combination of all three that finally got it out. It was a black rat snake, harmless, but still incredibly creepy.


July 3rd, 2006 - Nothing happened. It was weird. I was no less stressed, though, because I kept waiting for something to happen all day long.



July 3rd, 2007 - The Great Flood.

(I apologize for the pictures. My digital camera is dead, so these were taken with my phone.)This shot is to the west of our house. The water here is creek overflow. The light reflection just left of center of the pic is about 10 feet up from the intersection. The intersection is .3 miles from our house. It was very strange to drive up to water halfway up the hill this morning. It's an eerie feeling seeing all that water where there used to be road. We went down there last night and it was just closing in on the intersection on 3 sides then. Today it's halfway up the hill.



This shot is to the east of our house and is all river. Literally. The trees on the right of the shot hide it, but all out that direction is pasture. There were horses and cows in it yesterday. As of evening, just before nightfall, there were still some livestock on an island out there, but we never heard whether they found a way to get them in or not. They're from California and I don't think they've figured out quite yet that when we say the river's gonna flood, we kind of, um, mean it.



This is a closer shot of the river. The green stuff midway up, left side of the shot, is actually weeds that had grown up to the top of the fence row. The water is calm right here, but just 1/2 mile further east, the water is rolling like crazy. We can sit on our carport (1 mile from the bank) and hear the river roaring.

We stayed down here for quite awhile because you would not believe the earth worms that were heading for dry land. Some were as big as small snakes! The kids had a blast chasing me with them and listening to me squeal and threaten them bodily harm. We skipped rocks awhile, then the neighbors got tired of the strange redneck family from up the road being out in front of their house and came out in the yard and stared at us. So we left.

The phone lines are still working, but the humming, static and buzzing is so annoying we can't use the land lines. So far cell service is still excellent. The internet was kaput last night, but today is working fine. We have electricity, TV and internet, Oreos, sweet tea and fireworks.

If this is the Curse of the 3rd for this year, I can totally handle it.