Where's My Dang Rainbow?

Have you heard about the flooding in Arkansas? Maybe? Well, I was in the thick of it.

I also live about a billion miles away from work (not even exaggerating) and we have to cross a moat (also known as a low-water bridge, but I like the sound of "moat") to get to our house. When the hubby drove me to work yesterday morning, the water in the moat was already high. High enough that I was leery about crossing it. But we made it. And like good little people, we went to work.

Then all hell breaks loose. The rain begins to POUR. The thunder growls. The lightning strikes. The streets outside were GUSHING water. And I was seriously FREAKING out. I work in a newsroom, and it's bad when reporters look happy. (Okay, not necessarily happy, but definitely excited.) The police scanner was going crazy with reports of roads closing and people needing to be rescued from their homes and vehicles. Hubby calls and says, "I'm coming to get you!" So I leave work an hour early.

Not early enough. My mother, who works out where we live, called to tell us to not even TRY to get home because she couldn't even leave work. The police had all the roads closed down. Even the back roads that we were pretty sure only drug dealers and redneck locals knew about were closed. Okay, not a problem. We'll just stay with my friend. Except we can't even get to her house because the Illinois River bridge on the main highway is UNDERWATER.

So we have to turn around. We end up getting a hotel room (there goes the money we'd been saving to get new tires) and spend the rest of the night flicking between watching the news and River Monsters Unhooked (yes, that was hubby's decision). Meanwhile, I'm fretting about our dogs and cat. The dogs were inside and we fed and watered them before we left, so we were pretty sure they would be okay. The cat, however, decided he wanted to be outside yesterday morning and wouldn't come when we called. So he got to brave the storm outside (we have a barn, which I'm sure is where he ended up staying). Nonetheless, I worried about my furry babies. To the point where hubby decided he would go check on them before he went to work because the waters had gone down and most of the roads had reopened.

My babies, thankfully, are fine. Even the cat, which hubby said was extremely happy to see him and wouldn't stop meowing until he'd gotten fed. Hubby decided to stay and repair what was left of our drive-way and move the boulders out of the moat with the tractor so we could actually get through.

Now the sun is out, but more rain is coming. Need I remind you, God, that you promised not to do in the world with floods again? Speaking of which, where's my dang rainbow?!

(Disclaimer: Some events have been dramatized, but, unfortunately, most of it wasn't.)