Spring can be a time of transition, from the bleak cold and snow of winter to the bleak clouds and rains. People enjoy the spring since they can now go out of the house and ride their ATVs up and down this dirt road or do outside burning of shrubs and sticks and stink up the joint. And then the real calling of spring of Redwing Blackbirds and having them attack everybody and everything on sight. Or other birds thinking that the overhang and downspouts are potential nestings spots and further add misery to keeping a decent house. And spring of course brings gas prices back over two bucks a gallon. A neverending cycle. Anyway my favorite time of year is four months away in August when the Redwings all of a sudden disappear into cornfields and making things somewhat safe to go walk the trails again.
Unfortunly, this year brings out snowmelt to which snow from the upper midwest flows into our rivers and to further aggervate the situation we get endless spring rains and endless cloudy days if it doesn't rain or the stray snowstorm that seem to come out before April. Last year, we had 60 inches of snow on the ground and then ended up getting forty days and nights of rain rain rain, thus aggervating the rivers and the ground moisture to the point that I used all of my Goldmine archives to combat the damn water in the basement. And the fact of the matter was that the five feet of snow melted within a couple days thanks to a five inch weekend rainfall. We were never given a dry week at all in the Spring of 08 to which finally things came to a head on May 25th with a tornado outbreak and a week later 10 inches of rain that swelled the Red Cedar River to epic flooding of 31.3 feet that wiped out Cedar Rapids' neighborhoods.
But that's nothing compared to the people at Fargo ND or Grand Forks who in 1997 had to deal with a big flood and now in 2009 The Red River Of The North is ready to overtake the town with a major flood of 41 feet! Which would wipe out the record 1997 flood, just like the Flood of 08 wiped out the 1993 Flood or the 1929 or 1961 Floods of CR. And just like 08, Grand Forks/Fargo can't seem to buy a break with big snows up there and a continual rains.
When you go through floods, it either makes you stronger or makes you pissed off enough to move away from any body of water. We have scenic rivers and when it's not the rainy season (10 months out of 12 seems to be rain rain rain), The Wapsipinicon River is one of the most beautiful rivers in the state. But I don't love the river enough to put a house in its wetlands to pay me a visit in the spring. And like The Red Cedar, The Wapsi when it gets swollen of winter runoff and storms that overstayed their welcome goes on a rampage as well. And 24 feet of angry Wapsi did put out parts of Anamosa just like the Cedar did the Czech Village in CR. I have never been to North Dakota to see the Red River Of The North, it doesn't flow downstream but goes up north to Canada and empties into Lake Winnepeg to which means that Winnepeg better be on high alert in the next week or so after the Red crests Monday. You don't mess around with a raging river, if you survive a flood of epicness, you tend to get the hell out and move to higher ground or at least away from the floodplain. I do not wish floods on my worst enemies. Maybe the Taliban or Rush Limburgh or Ann Coulter or Dick Cheney. Floods suck, when they make history as the worst flood ever they suck even more. 10 months after the fact, The CR City council still have their heads up their ass and pity the poor folk who lost their homes and livelihood from the June 13, 2008 river rampage. Here's hoping the Grand Forks/Fargo folk have better luck and pray for their well being and pray for the damn rains to stop (or snows). The folks in the Midwest, especially those who live near rivers always have to deal with this every springtime. You can't take any storm for granted anymore. Blame it on global warming if you dare but I think that in the history of the planet that spring has always been the most extreme of weathers regardless and will continue to do so till the end of time.
They say that water will be most important liquid and will pass oil in terms of survival, and if that's the case then we must be the sheiks of the world or future. And it's too damn bad that we can't find a way to harness this valuble resourse when it invades our basement or comes roaring down a swollen and overflowed riverbank. And it's also too damn bad that we can't move The Gulf Of Mexico, the big problem of this and other problem, storm systems that form in the rockies to other places of this planet. We've been in a moisture surplus for the past three years due to very wet springs and very brutal winters to which we caught a break this year with a warm February that melted most of the snow away. But then again we got hit with five inches of rain the first week of March and about four feet of snow up in the hills to which is part of the Red River Of The North being at 32 feet and rising this week.
Yep, it's springtime in the midwest again, rain and flooding at someplace, somewhere in the midwest. We can pray and hope for a week or ten days of dry weather but we always seem to get the opposite of what we want. But then again if we get ten dry days, then some stupid hack will be crying for more rain, complaining it's too dry.
Springtime in the midwest. Makes me long to return to Arizona.
