I Love My Flood

I love our new pool. Okay, so it was only temporary, and it was only about 3 inches deep, but I loved it while it lasted.

We've been having amazing freak weather all summer and according to something I either heard, read or had subconsciously implanted in my head by superior forces, we had more lightning strikes in June than we had in all of 2007.

A massive thunderstorm today flooded our patio, dropped a few big hailstones, and turned the rest of our backyard into a swamp. The funny thing about this flood is that our basement didn't see a drop of water - despite what happened in early June.

As soon as the storm ended I went out to sit around the patio, splashing and relaxing. I waded out into our marshy backyard; the warm water felt good on my feet. Mud squished between my toes and streams of bubbles forced their way to the surface.

I decided to wander through the grass and see what became of the big anthill. The poor ants were drowning and using my legs to escape their liquid demise. Crickets were floating on the water's surface, hopping out of the way with each step I took. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark flash shoot past me. At first I thought it was some sort of speedy salamander. Then my eyes focused on the adorable leopard frog, sitting so naively still, hoping to evade me. He used all his skills - his spots, his green-ness, and his unblinking-ness to no avail: I saw him plain as day.

Crouched in the mucky grass I watched him swim, turn, and swim in the other direction. He looked cute and delicious. By now the ants were up to my epiglottis and I had to retreat. I brushed off the stowaways and enjoyed the pool in my yard until the sun went down. I loved it so much I'm now trying to devise a way to flood my backyard without alerting the water company, or offending any New Orleans residents.