What We've Been Up To - 9/8/11

It rained this week!  And rained.  And rained. And rained.   I don't remember anything like this before.  Here are some photos I took of the DRY stream bed behind our house.  It is rushing into our normally placid little pond. 

A 12 yo boy on the other side of the town I live in, was swept to his death when he fell into a swollen stream in his back yard.  A terrible tragedy.

This is pouring over the place we usually walk.

This is looking down from a hill into the stream.

The pond looks twice as big as usual and three times as muddy!

Rick had to stay downtown for the night.  The traffic was so bad and so many roads were closed that it was taking hours for people to get home.  

This was supposed to be our first week of our fall schedule but many things wound up being cancelled.

Monday -Labor Day, Rick was still up in Boston with Will doing their orientation program.  I read aloud from a book about the Mass.   I'd link to it but I can't seem to get the hang of linking on my Mac.

Also read some Longfellow poetry to Becky and Sean.

Josh worked on Chemistry homework.  New this year is that homework is due by e-mail the night before the class.  Took Josh to buy running shoes because he's decided to join a local cross country team.

Tuesday -Josh started his on line PreCalculus class with Derek Owens.  Rick got home from Boston around 1 p.m. and took the day off.  It was nice to have him back.  Josh went to Chemistry class.  Josh was supposed to start Cross-country practice, but it was cancelled due to rain.

Wednesday - First Latin class for Josh and myself, dragged Becky and Sean along too.  Josh went to CLC in the evening.  Driving was awful through all the rain.

Thursday - had an Aquinas Learning get together at the church where we'll be holding it.  Got to talk to the Pastor and secretary, ironed out some issues, several moms came and helped with final clean up (but I still think I'll need to go in next Wednesday to see if everything is good for our first day next Thursday).  The church started flooding because the rain, which had been awful all week and suddenly became the most torrential rain I've ever experienced.  It was like someone was dumping buckets from the sky.  The minute you stepped out you were completely drenched.  They say 2 or more inches were falling per hour!  Totalling something like 9+ inches!  Incredible.  We managed to get home but missed our afternoon obligation.  Roads began to flood.  It was quite dramatic!

Friday - Josh was supposed to have another Chem class but it is cancelled because the teacher follows the country rules and the county schools are closed due to flooded roads.  Josh took the time to sleep in, read Julius Caesar and hopefully will finish up his Psychology for the week.  Read Sunday's scripture readings and about St. Peter Claver, whose feast is today, to Sean and Becky.  They each did a bit of math and Latin.  Sean's been reading Journey to the Center of the Earth and he is actually enjoying it!

Will has called every day.  He's homesick and he also caught a cold, so he's feeling a bit crummy.

Heard from Hannah earlier in the week.  She likes all her classes and her tiny single dorm room.

It's been an exciting, uncomfortable, wet week.  But I am grateful to the cancellations in a way because it gives me another week to ease into the hardcore fall routine we are starting up.