What Mary said...

My friend Mary dropped me this perceptive note...

A little rain with your coffee ? I miss the sun too . I have not been out of the house enough to tell what is occurring on our property or the three near-by retention ponds. The R. ponds are 1 acre , 1.5 acre and 5 acres . I can imagine they are more like lakes today than ponds . One pond was built when the road was widened to accommodate 100 year floods . After the 2004 hurricanes dumped a total of 64 inches of rain , two more ponds were added . With this record setting amount of rain for one storm , they might be wishing they had added a fourth pond !!

I am sure we have close to the same amount as you quoted - almost 20 inches . Since we are on a septic system , I have stopped doing laundry and dishes to avoid a back-up . Don't want to add to the umpteen inches or more of H2O already there . Drainage is good on our property and so far - no damaging flooding . The rains from Fay have been slow and steady which has saved us by allowing percolating
and soaking into the ground . The good news is no lightning --- yet !

Even after Fay decides to end her Florida vacation , we will still have thunder storms following her . The weather forecast does not look good for the next 5 days - thunder, lightning and more rain. The following storms might just do us all in with the fast rainfall that can cause flash flooding . Since the ground is saturated there is no place for very heavy rains to go ! Lightning has also been a huge problem in the past for us here . Now people will have to deal with the St. Johns River flooding.

Beach erosion has been major and the millions and millions of dollars spent on bringing in sand earlier this year has been for nothing . This is not good for tourism and business in general . The small business owners were not making any money before this storm . 5 days of shops closed and destruction from flooding may just close these businesses especially in downtown DeLand . I worried before this
storm about my friends who own their own stores . Now ? The citrus industry is affected as well . This much rain causes fruit split and destroys much of the winter crop - mine included . Citrus trees are very sensitive to flooding and cannot have their roots under water for more than a few hours or they suffocate . I have one tree that is slowly dying from the hurricanes of 2004 . This storm will definitely be the final blow to that tree.

The worst part for us Floridians is that we have not seen the sun in almost a week . That's not normal ! I should be watching a glorious sunrise but instead am sitting in the dark with pounding rain outside . When ( if ? ) the storm gives us a break , we will walk about and do a check of the fencing , cows and neighbors . Now the radio is predicting tornadoes this afternoon . Oh , joy ! What next ? If the economy and housing crisis did not drive away newcomers , this storm might just do it . Water front property anyone ? Hope you are dry and safe and not going stir crazy!

I am going stir crazy. And I need some sun. I haven't seen it since last Sunday while fishing at Canaveral.