Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

Last week’s unusually wet weather was something different after last year, when it seemed we were looking at every cloud hoping something wet would fall from it.

Tuesday’s senior golf morning start was cancelled by rain. Wednesday we showed up and gave it a shot after believing the radar that we were safe until 3 p.m.

Surprise! We hadn’t even finished the fifth hole when a heavy rain began. We spent a half hour or so in the machine shed waiting it out watching very heavy rain run across the Minnewaska Golf Course parking lot.

We would have gone in the clubhouse but roughly 100 girls, coaches and officials were hiding in there because there was a girl’s golf tournament taking place on the back nine while we were on the front.

While most of the senior group left with the first rain our brave five-some headed back out when the rain stopped. We finished the first nine (we’d left our balls on the fairway when the rain hit and played from there when we returned).

Then we started the second nine and got back to the fifth hole when rain started again. This time we were a little smarter, it wasn’t raining quite as hard this time but there was no sense in getting soaked twice!

Thursday is men’s day at the course but we didn’t get a round in then, either. Our senior time starts in the morning and it was raining then, and boy did it rain.

It stopped and I walked to the post office and the bank from the house and on the way home it started again, I had to jog the last three blocks to keep from getting soaked.

Once home it rained hard again for a while. Then the sun came out and the temperature rose very quickly. I went out on the deck and discovered 3.5 inches of water in my rain gauge, that would have been Wednesday and Thursday’s rain up to 4 p.m. Thursday.

Thursday was Mary’s birthday and we had been looking forward to the Sons of the Pioneers concert at the Alexandria Area High School, it was part of the community concert series to which we belong.

We were watching the radar and left a few minutes early so we would get into the auditorium before the next rain storm hit. Like most newer schools it is a hike from parking lot to the auditorium and one does not want to do that in the rain.

On the road each of our cell phones vibrated. Mary looked at hers and saw a warning from the National Weather Service saying we should look out for heavy rain and winds to 80 mph. It seemed the storm was gaining on us as we headed north.

We got to Alex and were heading down 50th Street toward the high school when the rain and wind hit. It was a pounding rain and we both decided then and there that we would be soaked to the skin by the time we got into the school. Who wants to sit through a concert soaking wet? 

So we turned around and headed back to Glenwood. 

This storm had started with some powerful blasts of wind. On 50th Street in Alexandria as we passed Fleet Farm the dumpster full of styrofoam packing started sending foam sheets all over. On the way south on Highway 29 some of those barrel markers guarding a sign warning of the detour for Highway 29 were blown into the driving lanes.

Later, on Highway 55 into Glenwood one sign was blown into our driving lane and two more were blown entirely across the highway and into the ditch on the north side of the road. Then on Highway 29 by Midwest Machinery a big sign with the lighted message of the detour was tipped over.

So we were glad to get back home and put the car safely in the garage!