Rein in the Rain

When you pray for rain, it's a good idea to be prepared for a flood.

Last summer nary a drop of rain fell here at the northern end of southern nowhere, and Lake Brenda's water level dropped precipitously. By the time the leaves started to fall, the shoreline had receeded by at least twenty feet and the water level had fallen at least six feet from where it had been when Miss Brenda and I dropped anchor here at the end of March last year. As the water level dropped, I decided to take advantage of the siutation and built a dock on dry land that had hitherto been underwater. As the water level dropped and the shorelined receeded even further, I added on to the end of the dock.

There were two different high water marks along the dam at the northern end of my impoundment and I reckoned that as dry as the weather had been and seeing that global warming was going to desertify the southeastern re-United States anyway, it would probably take many years, if ever, to refill the lake to its maximum capacity. So, I built the dock with the the top of it just above the lower of the two high water marks. Mind you, the dock was completely on dry land during its entire initial and additional construction. In fact, after its completion, the gap between the dock and the water's edge continued to grow. I felt a bit like Noah, building for a flood in the desert. Except that my faith in the water's return was not complete enough.

Six weeks ago, a week of steady, heavy rain dramatically raised the water level--up and inches over the top of my dock. Not to worry, I told myself, it'll drop again. And it did. Then last Friday we got another 5 inches of rain and my dock is under water again.

Guess I'll be raising the top of my dock this summer--wonder how I'm going to do that.