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All Aboard The Pineapple Express!

The lead story of the day? Weather. Rain to be specific. We've been getting pounded here with almost 2.5 inches of rain. That may not sound like a lot to some of you wet weather folks, but here in the desert that's almost half our annual rainfall. And it's causing big problems. The washes and flood control channels have turned into fast moving rivers with major road closures last night (Vista Chino, Ramon, Indian Canyon, Gene Autry). It doesn't look like it's going to ease up soon. We're supposed to get another big storm coming through tonight and tomorrow. As I am typing this it suddenly got very dark and I can hear the thunderstorm rolling in now... BOOM!

The weather was so crappy yesterday that the missus and I spent most of the day hibernating inside doing some painting chores and just staying warm and dry. Around 11:00pm our next door neighbor knocked on our door in a bit of a panic as the water was rising and threatening to flood their living room. I went over to see if I could help but not having a pump there wasn't much we would do. I came back to get a push broom out of my garage to try and move some of the water away from the house and discovered that my pool was about to overflow and the standing water on the patio had moved up to the garage and was about to go in. Shit. I suddenly had my own problems to deal with.

While our neighbor put in a call to the Al's (our neighbors up the street) to see if either of them had a pump I spent a good 20 minutes in the pouring rain sweeping water around in a lame attempt to thwart the flooding of my garage. Our angels arrived with West Side Al lending us his small pump for the standing water and East Side Al brought his high volume pool pump. We took about 3 inches off each of our pools, that should give us some breathing room to get through the next couple of days. Unfortunately the garage is pretty soggy, though not totally flooded. I think we're going to have to do some triage in there today.

Oh, and if I can get there, I guess I'll be going to Lowes to pick up a pump. And maybe some sand bags. In the desert... Who'd a thunk...

If you are out and about the area today - please drive carefully and don't attempt to cross the washes. I don't want to hear about you on the news.