Building an ark...

So we've had a deluge of rain over the last couple days, thanks to tropical storm Hermine (Hermine?? What kind of a name is that? I actually thought it was "Hermione" at first, and was chuckling at the thought of a Harry Potter-reading meteorology nerd gleefully naming all the storms -- did I miss tropical storm Dumbledore?? -- but then I realized there was no "o" in the name. Hermine. Her. Mine. Ooookay, whatever...)

Anyway, my morning commute has taken me twice as long as usual, and I've felt quite unsafe on the roads more than once. I couldn't even SEE the road half of the time I was on it yesterday -- it was raining so hard that all I could make out were other cars' taillights. The only way I was able to drive was by following them... and I could only hope that none of THEM drove off the road, because I probably would've just lemming'd my car right along with them. (Ha! Like my made-up word? Lemming'd... I tried out "lemminged" first, but the "e" was bothering me... plus, "lemming'd" looks more street wise and tough -- "yo, dude, you just got lemming'd!" I should probably mention that I'm tired... :))

The crazy amount of rain has caused all kinds of flooding (I even heard that a school district north of here actually had a "rain day" today, as opposed to the snow days we used to have in New Jersey...). This is Brushy Creek right outside our neighborhood, which usually really IS just a creek:

If you've never seen it before, it's hard to understand just how high this water is. So, with the magic of Photoshop, I shall attempt to manipulate this photo so that it looks exactly as it might look on a clear, sunny day:

Okay, I may not actually have Photoshop... but that's pretty accurate. Really.

Hopefully the rest of the week will be sunnier -- my ark-building skills are about as good as my drawing skills... ;)