Thursday, July 1, 2010

Flooded Highway
















We were on our way to Saskatoon when we ran into this flooded part of the highway a few miles west of Humboldt. Portable traffic lights had been hauled out to both sides of the water so that vehicles would go through one lane at a time. The photo above is the view from the half-ton as we followed the fellow in front of us.

Shortly afterward the truck's engine light came on and the truck started acting funny, and it continued to do so for the next two days, but it did get us home. Our friendly local mechanic replaced an oxygen sensor (?) and all is well with the world again. This is a relief because someone whose vehicle acted just the same and whose owner subsequently drove it home from the city, as we did, ended up wrecking its catalytic converter. Which would have been a far more costly repair.

I have no idea if I'm using all these vehicle terms correctly; I'm trying to repeat what I've been told, but offer no guarantees that I'm getting any of it right.

***

So, it's Canada Day. A holiday for some. Not me; I'm working. But in between hours here at the computer, I'm getting a few things done. It's hot and humid outside so I can't stand to be out long anyway, and the mosquitoes are voracious, even in this heat. I've just drilled drainage holes in the dozen plastic plant pots I bought, and now I've got to mix peat with soil to ready the pots for the newest bedding plants. But the mosquitoes ... the heat ... waaaa! I either have to be covered up and dying of heat, or wear something skimpy and let my skin soak up the poison that is bug spray.

It'll be cooler tonight, but the bugs will be worse.

Not that I'm complaining. Oh no. We don't want more rain; and our house remains fairly cool due to the furnace fan blowing air up from the basement. So much so, that after sitting here for a while I have to pull on something with long sleeves or get goosebumps on my bare arms.

3 comments:

  1. I know what you mean. I have live on the Texas most of my life. I can't tell you how many flooded roads I have had to travel on. It's one of the first things you learn, when you learn to drive. How and when to drive through a flooded street.
    I love rain, but dread the misquotes that show up after it. But I guess you can't have one with out the other. Crap another tropical depression is in the gulf...more rain on the way.

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  2. So far, it's been quite cool in the Cariboo. But the mosquitoes don't seem to mind it...early evening they are out in droves!

    The only time we have flooding here is when thundershowers, the like of which I have never seen, pour down water on the highways until they flood. It's quite difficult driving through them, as the windshield washers can't keep up and you feel as if you are under water! When I lived on the coast, flooding from rivers was much more common.

    We use furnace air from our crawlspace and you're right...it gets quite cool from it. And am I ever thankful!!

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  3. Glad you mentioned the crawlspace; I was wondering if it would work as well. After repeated flooding in the basements of the last three houses I've lived in, I'm thinking basements are overrated. Except last night, when all around the house the clouds were so thunderously heavy and churned up that I kept an eye out for funnel clouds. Was glad to have a basement in case retreat was necessary.

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