Flood

So, we went to see my parents this weekend. We arrived late Saturday evening and agreed to go pick up dinner for my dad’s office staff who had spent all day moving into a new building. We went by to collect the orders and headed off for the local Italian (pronounced “EYE-tal-ee-an” for those not from SE OK) joint. As we started driving, it started raining. To say it was raining hard would DEFINITELY be an understatement. What would have normally been a 4 1/2 minute drive across town was a minimum of 10 minutes. When my husband dropped me off at the curb (to minimize the “drowned rat” appearance I was sure to get after stepping out into the deluge) I stepped out of the car into ankle deep water. Fine, no big deal, I always wear flip-flops from March to October so not a huge problem. No. The problem came when I left the restaurant (carrying a tomato box with 10 people’s orders in it) to find THIS:

I think the look on my face pretty much says it all. That’s right. In the space of about 10 minutes, Main Street had turned into a river. The water was up over the curb (which I’m standing directly in front of in the above picture) and was only a couple feet from the doors of the businesses along the street. We manage to get the food all in the car without incident (for the most part) and head back across town. We decided to go down Main because Washington always floods. Turns out so does Main. It was so bad that we were completely unable to turn OFF of Main St. because the water on the sides was so deep it would have flooded our car. As we’re driving the following coversation takes place between me and my husband:

Husband: I feel like Noah driving the Ark here.

Me: Pretty sure if God hadn’t promised that he wouldn’t flood the earth again, I’d say we have more water than Noah did.

Husband: Oh, it’s not that bad (as we’re driving 15 blocks out of our way DOWN THE LEFT TURN LANE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET because there’s water two feet deep in both lanes on either side).

Me: Oh, OK.

Husband (as we hear a disturbing squeaking noise): Um, is that OUR car???

The good news is, we made it back to the new building (looking like this) with the food still warm (mostly) and today the car still runs so I guess it wasn’t as bad as I thought…