Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

We actually made the weather channel.

Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005
8:39 a.m.
I apologize for not updating yesterday. I submitted several photos to Photobucket and resized some of them, and I wanted to make sure that that was done before I pasted them into my diary, and since I didn�t do that until just before bedtime, there was no time for an entry.

Yesterday morning the university was closed due to flooding. While the water didn�t actually enter any buildings (at least, I think it didn�t), it still filled up the football fields, covered the main entry roadway, and came dangerously close to the administration building and the house housing philosophy and religion. I don�t know if that is significant or not.

Hubby, Little Princess and I parked the car at the private school and walked the rest of the way, taking pictures as we went. The river was so wide, it looked like the St. Lawrence, not the St. Francis, and the Massawippi had inundated everything along its banks. We went to the music department to make sure that the basement was dry (there are many pianos and other sensitive musical instruments down there) and ended up just taking things off the floor that could be damaged and putting them on chairs or tables, including the amps and bass drums in the percussion studio and any electrical connections in the theory classroom. Otherwise, things were in order.

There were several vans from different television stations filming, including Gl0bal, and I turned around from staring at the high waters at one point to find a camera aimed directly at me. I said, rather surprisedly, �Oh, hello!� but we forgot to tune into the evening news to see if my cameo appearance was aired or not. The bridge over the Massawippi, presently being repaired but open to foot traffic, was closed to pedestrians, I am presuming because the water was over the road on the other side. Sixty-five percent of students live on the other side of town, and that is why classes were cancelled.

At one point Little Princess� BF called to say that the St. Francis bridge, our bridge, had been closed, and I got all worried about Buddy Boy getting home from school, since his school bus takes that route. But he arrived home at the usual time. It had stopped raining by then and I suppose the waters were already starting to recede.

Today the university is open and it�s business as usual. Here are some photos taken yesterday with our new camera:

The St. Francis bridge with the water level marked in feet. In case you can�t see it clearly here, we were at the 14' mark.

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The mighty St. Francis river, looking west towards town. It is about twice as wide as normal.

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The football field in front of ChampIain CoIIege was totally filled. You can tell how deep it was from the goal posts.

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Here you can see how the Massawippi River has flooded the front lawn of the university, with the famous arched bridge in the background.

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Here is a shot of the flood waters on the north side of that same bridge. We were standing on the roadway just before the bridge starts.

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Okay, enough flood talk. Patsy called me yesterday. She went home for Thanksgiving only to have her father, who was quite old and not well, die on the Sunday, so she stayed with her family until the funeral on Thursday. I met her at belly dancing class, unable to pick her up for the next month due to the bridge closure, but did give her a ride home, which meant I had to drive all the way around again to get home myself. She was kind of happy the university had been closed, since it meant she could just spend quiet time alone. Her male Siamese cat is also dying from a degenerative kidney disease, and her kitties are like her children.

Before I go, just one last photo. This one I took myself. I have spoken of my burgmansia on several occasions, but finally I am able to show you one of its gorgeous flowers. It�s not called an angel trumpet for nothing.

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