Living the High Life

It’s raining, I mean pouring, and the old man certainly is snoring.  This tropical storm Andrea has been dumping bucket loads of water on our already saturated land for over 24 hours now.  Carter and I ventured out of the house this afternoon on an errand.  We left our neighborhood via Dover Rd. heading towards Hope Valley Rd.  At 1:30 the golf course was already completely lake like and the tiny bridge at the end of the course by the Hodges & Burket’s houses was barley peeking above the rushing water.

We went to the mall and two hours later were barley able to make it back home.   As we returned via Hope Valley rd. the water had breached it at Rugby and city workers were just about to stop cars from passing.  We got to Dover rd and turn down only to be stopped four houses in because the road was so flooded that you could not see pavement for at least a football field and a half.

We turned around and went up to Surrey Rd.  I was fearful that the water might have come across the road there, but we were lucky enough to get there before the breach that I am sure happened within moments of our passing.  The water was six feet up a street sign, which I knew because I could only see about half the speed limit on the face of the sign.  It is still raining and raining hard.

Seeing the homes in the valley’s of my neighborhood where water has engulfed them reminded me of something a friend’s father told me before I bought my first house; he said, “always buy on the high side of the hill because water always runs down hill and water always wins.”  No matter how attractive a house was on the outside, if it was in a valley I never bothered to even look at the inside.  Why fall in love with something that could cause heartache?

The phrase “taking the high road” also comes to mind today.  Sure the quickest route is not the easiest or in the case today, even the passable way to go.  The high road took longer, but in the end it got us home.

Nature is going to win.  We can fight, but rather than fight, working with the inevitable is easier.  Dieting is the same way for me.  I have learned what naturally works for me and what might cause me to be underwater and I plan around it.  But I always plan to be on the high side of the hill so that I am not caught surprised by a sudden deluge.  That means having healthy food in the house and not having to go to the store hungry, or looking at restaurant’s menu on-line before I go out to dinner.   I’m not going to win against nature, but I hope that I am learning to stay out of her way.