When I began to drive again in March, I said I would not drive after dark and not while it was raining. The rain almost caught me today. It was raining early in the morning, but when it stopped, the sun came out. I assumed it would continue to shine, so it was a surprise when sprinkles hit the windshield as I drove to town. It didn’t amount to much. I walked into the store, went to the right and shopped for fruits and vegetables. All of a sudden I heard a loud, sustained noise coming from the far end of the store. It sounded like a giant vacuum as wide as the store coming toward me. My eyes darted about to check other people’s reactions, but no one seemed to notice. It reached the ceiling above me, and I realized it was heavy, heavy rain beating on the flat roof. There was one loud thunderclap amid the downpour. I continued shopping, checking the radar on the phone before I went down the last aisle. The rain hadn’t quite cleared where I was. Surprisingly, it had stopped raining and didn’t begin again until I was home.
I noticed this morning that the water level in the bottom pool of the waterfall had dropped dramatically overnight. One hose was still working, but the other had stopped. Thank goodness I saw it and unplugged it before shopping! When things had dried off a bit, I looked at the junction where the hose splits in two directions. I assumed that is where the water leaked, but it was dry. Adding water to the pool and turning on the pump again, I saw it was working normally. Half an hour later it wasn’t. I turned the hose toward the garden and pumped the water from the lowest pool. There were globs of stringy things that had fallen from a tree hanging on the pump. With everything cleaned and back in place, I started the pump again. It seemed to be working perfectly, but I unplugged it before dark, not willing to risk a repeat during the night. I’m still wondering how so much water escaped without leaving evidence.
Mehrling Muse 