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07/11/2003 Entry: "Rain rain go away...." I just read that in our area, it has rained 49 of the last 60 days. We had one week where it didn't rain, and it was hot, humid, and sticky (typical DC summer, but I was in Cape Hatteras that week anyway), and then more rain. It's rained so much that we've had floods (luckily, my house is on higher ground). A lot of it has been violent rain, too, like huge thunderstorms, high winds, and one of the tornados touched down near our main campus. I got this e-mail a few days ago: A tornado has been sited in the vicinity of our Dulles campus. Anyone on the NOVA campus is advised to get away from any windows and take shelter immediately in the interior areas of the building until further notice. Note... they sent this by E-mail. By E-mail. Think about it for a second. If you were reading the E-mail, you wouldn't very likely wouldn't be near a window. If you were near a window... you wouldn't have seen the E-mail. Yerf. That's right, I invented an expression. Yerf. Anyway, there are several effects these rainstorms have had that I want to complain about. First, my lawn looks nice, but that's not all good. Everything that is plant-related has been growing like crazy. My roses look nice, but the weeds in the pots can't be controlled. I can't mow the lawn while it's still wet, and the longer the grass gets, the longer it takes to dry. My lawn went weeks before I was able to mow it, and the grass got so high in my back yard, it was taller than my dogs. When I did get to mow this week, I had to empty the mower bag about ten times (normally I empty it maybe twice). My front yard hasn't been mowed yet because it started to rain just as I was starting to get to it. The trees have been growing like crazy, and I am not just talking about the ones I know are already there, I am talking about seeds and saplings springing up everywhere: in my azaleas, flowerpots, in cracks in the sidewalk and driveway, and even between the spaces of my deck boards. Since nothing gets to dry out, that gets to my second complaint: Mosquitos. They have bred like crazy in all the stagnant puddles, and even I, who doesn't get bitten much, have bumps all over my legs and arms. I am losing sleep because they itch so much. Next, my asthma has been going into overdrive, what with the pollen, mold, and mildew spores having the time of their lives. My gutters (the older ones, not the ones we got replaced) are sagging, and I am glad I got to clean them out a few months ago (I got a gutter cleaning kit). The last few times I have to get groceries, I got wet. And the thunderstorms! Oy! The power and cable keep going in and out. Every time I hear the thunder coming, I have to run around and unplug the computers from the power, phone, and LAN. Yes, they are on surge protectors, but if there's a semi-direct hit to the power lines, that won't mean much. I used to know an old Atari BBS, ARMUDIC, which lost most of its hardware in one such event. They were on surge protectors, but the voltage or nature's own was far greater than the capacitor or the fuses in the main box and the strips. They lost the computer and most of their modems (the phone lines didn't have surge protection, people always forget about them). The best solution is just to disconnect the systems from any external lines. The wind keeps blowing debris everywhere and my yard ends up with a lot of branches and trash from the alley behind us. And everything is SO DAMP! I feel like I am living in frickin' Pacific Northwest, folks. It's like Seattle weather for days at a time. I bet I could grow Redwoods if this keeps up.