It's been a bit damp.

I guess that I shouldn't complain.

But I will.

It's been raining steadily for the last week. (or seems like it has...) We've had serious, soaking rains and humid weather most days. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm growing mold. I'm supposed to go to the WoodenBoat Show at Mystic at the end of next week and then attend a party given by friends nearby. I'm planning to bring a tent to stay after the party, but the host has been telling dire tales of slugs in his yard. He's been comparing them to banana slugs that he saw in California. Very large. Very yellow. Perhaps I will not wear sandals to his house. He does tend to exaggerate a little. Maybe I'd better ask his wife.


I always think of slugs as homeless snails. Don't ask me where I get that thought from, but I do. I saw a few slugs out in the plants in our back garden the other day. It surprised me as we live in a place with fairly dry, well-drained soil. I didn't expect to see them. When I saw one of these garden snails on the back of the compost bin last night, I was a bit stunned.


If my M-I-L was here, she'd probably be out looking for the snails to go with a little garlic butter and a glass of red wine. If life hands you lemons...

As I sit here typing, I'm listening to it rain rather hard outside and thinking back to my drive home this evening - the source of inspiration for this post. I left work and headed to the nearest supermarket on my ride home to pick up a few things. It was literally raining down in buckets and the road looked like a river. The storm drains and windshield wipers were both having a hard time keeping up with the amount of water falling from the sky. The thing that astonished me was that there seemed to be frogs everywhere trying to cross the road. Little bitty ones and great big ones. I guess I should be thinking about an ark again instead of a skin-on-frame kayak.

It has been raining a bit here...

The only good part about the weather is there will be something to paddle on!

It was an Ark and stormy night...

It is yet another day of rain.

It seems like it has been raining non-stop for the past two weeks. This is an exaggeration, but not by much. It's been raining so much lately, and in such biblical proportions, that I've been thinking of going into cedar-strip arks.

We went on a family camping trip to Vermont last weekend and it rained a fair portion of the weekend. At one point, the skies literally opened up on us as we were walking on a trail in the woods and we got drenched. It rained so hard that the mud was splashing up on us from the trail. I was muddy almost mid-way to my knees. When we went into the woods, it had been sunny, but we couldn't see the changing weather through the thick tree canopy in the ravine we were hiking in. Because the weather had looked so promising, we had (foolishly) left our rain gear in the car.

Since we've returned, the rain around here has been extreme. A nearby town saw 5" of rain in about 70 minutes. Flooding in the area has been severe. The number of downed trees, limbs and electric lines has been particularly impressive. For no apparent reason (other than rain) the power went off last night for about 20 minutes.

I'm thinking that pretty soon I'll need some short term evolutionary changes to deal with this weather. Flippers, gills or webbed toes come to mind.

Please, please - a little sun to get rid of the moss that's growing on me!

I suppose the only thing about it that gives me some comfort is the fact that I know that I'll have something to paddle on when it finally stops!