Singin' (or cursin') in the rain. . .

Yesterday, the skies opened up and dropped several inches of rain in about 30 minutes. Luckily, we had cleaned out the gutters a couple of days before, though they were still overflowing. I went outside to check on the gutters and the drainage ditches about 10 minutes after it started dumping.

One of the ditches, that runs under the sidewalk/steps up to the house from the driveway, was blocked, and there was a nice, flowing stream of water about 2 inches deep running across the stairs.

I pulled out a metal pole that we use to clear blockages and after getting soaked for a couple of minutes, went to get a shovel, as I figured that there was something much larger stuck in there, or a lot of mud that had washed down. After another few minutes in the downpour, Lucy came out to see what I was doing. Slogging in the rain and the muck, I still couldn't get the blockage cleared.

At last, Lucy spotted the problem, after I had shoveled more dreck out of the ditch: There was a good-sized rock, about 15 pounds or so, that had washed down and was plugging up the hole. I reached down, plucked the rock out and the water shot through like it was supposed to. Just wish Lucy had come out earlier, and spotted the rock.