Busy Tuesday and Van Dyke Rant

Tuesday progressed uneventfully throughout most of the day. Then, on my commute home, I encountered a Houston gully washer. It only rained 1.5 inches, but did so in a short 20 minutes or so. An area around our house of about 4 square miles suddenly flooded. I tried several routes to get home, only to be blocked by obviously flooded streets and stalled and stopped cars. I decided to head back to I-610, and on a completely deserted on-ramp, encountered my own personal puddle. Seeing no stalled or stopped cars I assumed it was clear. As I headed down the ramp it started to look bad. Knowing the worst thing you can do is stop I started looking for a place to turn around. Then, I hit a dip and water came over the hood. I jerked the wheel to the left to get on a median and only made it half way up before the engine died.

I called Barb and started the 2 mile walk home. I got out of the car into water up to my mid-thigh. Water was already in the car on the passenger side. Every time an SUV or pickup passed the wake would pick up the passenger side of the car. Apparently a wake also killed my Blackberry. I made it 1/3 of the way home before neighbor Todd showed up in his Chevy Suburban to rescue me. We went back to try and push my car up onto the median with the help of an onlooker. His comment? "A flooded Infiniti - that's a damn shame!"

Todd took me home and then brought his family over for an already scheduled dinner. Before dinner I got down on one knee and asked the Johnson's to be Sean's Godparents. They said yes! We had of long list of contenders, however our church's requirement that Godparents both be practicing Catholics helped us focus on Todd and Tiffany. Then, they delighted us by asking us to be Morgan's Godparents! We are very excited!

Back to the car story: After dinner Todd and I went to check on the Infiniti. It, and the 40+ other flooded cars in the area, were gone. Towed by the city of Houston. I eventually tracked the car down to a yard in SW Houston. Ask me for stories on this place! The car would not start and the electrical system would not even start-up. Totally dead. I am waiting for USAA to inspect it and decide on the next step.

Luckily the Johnsons have a spare car at the moment, so I have something to drive to work in.

OK. Enough. I will rant on Van Dykes later....