Water, Water Everywhere

I got a very late start this morning because just as I woke up, my power went out. Without power, there wasn't much point in getting up, since I couldn't make breakfast or do much work, so I went back to sleep and then overslept because it was cool and dark. The power was back when I woke again, but then went out again while I was eating breakfast. I finished eating and got dressed and was just about to head to the post office (since there wasn't much else I could do) when the power came back. We have buried lines, so we don't usually lose power in storms or ice storms, but I guess the wet, totally saturated ground and slight flooding is affecting us now.

We don't have actual flooding in my neighborhood because I live in a flood control district. We have a network of canals with pumping stations, and there's a big levee between us and the river, with a lot of space around the river between the levees, and the river itself in a pretty deep channel. But the canals are higher than normal, coming a bit over the rock/stone edging, but not yet up to the walking paths alongside them, except where they go under bridges. All the passages under streets seem to be under water right now. We're a lot better off here than they were in Austin and Houston this weekend.

I made it to the lake Friday night for the first of the summer fireworks, and the lake is way above normal. Our usual viewing site was closed, so we went to the park that's up on a high ledge over the lake. The ledge is now a beach. A lot of the picnic tables were under water. Last summer, the lake was about 11 feet below normal. Last I heard, it's now 18 feet above normal, but that was before yesterday's round of storms.

My big achievement this weekend was baking a beautiful apple pie for the social after the Memorial Day concert. Seriously, is this a thing of beauty, or what?


And then they sliced all the pies ahead of time and had them in bowls with ice cream as everyone came through the line, so no one got to see it. However, I know it was also very tasty because I used the pastry scraps and some bits of the filling that didn't fit in the main pie to make a mini version so I could taste it. So even if no one got to appreciate the beauty, whoever was lucky enough to get my pie got something that tasted good. I have a new favorite recipe.

But now it's back to work. I need to finish this book because I have another one starting to eat its way into my brain. It's going to be a story taking place on two timelines, with a present-day story in which someone discovers the past story. I think the past story is going to be told in found items, like scraps of letters and journals, but what I think I'm going to do is write that story independently as the journal entries and letters, and then figure out what pieces of it to use and where. The heroine of the past story is surprising me because she's very different from any character I've ever written, quite bold and fearless in a very intrepid way. She's a real action heroine. But first I need to finish this book and then a proposal and then do a lot of research.