The night before the air was still, stagnant, humid and hot. As the evening wore down to nothing but clear skies and a dry moon, I became desperate for the rain the meteorologists promised me. They pinky swore and bet their life it would rain just for me. I stamped my foot and resolved I would not let another night pass by without paying the toll.
So I poured myself a concoction of chai tea and had Zander turn on the sprinklers in the backyard.
Thanks to my wonderful patience and content spirit, our yard was saturated and full from a heavy drink, when we woke up the next morning with our house on the brink of flooding.
I even had the gall, in the middle of the night when the rolling thunder rolled me out of bed to casually look out the window and remark "eh, its not that great of a storm, i'd rather sleep".
huh. Apparently its been called "a 100 year storm"
Zander of course, handled it with grace in galoshes. We needed to stop the seeping of the water. We needed sandbags. Well, what we had was a lot of mud and garbage bags.
He begins to dig a hole somewhere below the flooded surface. "How high is the water mama" Johnny Cash sings from his throat. "Two feet high and risin" I answer with the rain steadily dripping off our backs.
Zander never had an easier time digging a hole for a tree, lets just say. Its been over a year trying to decide which one to plant in our backyard. Now there is a beautiful bowl of mud waiting to be filled with a Chinese Elm's toes instead of Ender's and Cora's.
Have you ever noticed the branches of the Chinese Elm? They grow from the trunk like arms, stretching sinew and tendon. Its elegant and intriguing. The Arizona Sycamore, the Ghost Gum Eucalyptus, the Blue and Green Palos all have this uncanny quality. Their branches bend and their bark wrinkles where it would on your own skin as you freely move.
