Health & Fitness
Rain, Rain Go Away
The Appelt Park in Riverdale and Sloan Park in Bloomingdale both have raging rivers in their midst instead of the lazy streams they used to have.
It is no surprise to our area that many of us have been hit with devastation and loss from Hurricane Irene. Many of my friends are still living with family members in other towns after being evacuated and some lost everything in their basements or first floor. One friend still does not have power or hot water; another has been living with her mother for over 12 days.
I was very lucky compared to most. I had one foot of water in my basement and garage and although I lost many of my wedding photos and daughter's baby pictures, I was able to save some of them as well. The hot water was able to be put on three days later and even though after last night's rainstorm, I have another inch of water in the basement, I am happy that it wasn't worse.
On the brighter side, it will give us a chance to get rid of all of the junk in the basement that we weren't going to use anyway. De-cluttering is a good thing.
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Driving from Butler to my parents' home in Pompton Lakes via Route 23 South took 45 minutes. I just could not get onto Route 287 North to get onto Hamburg Turnpike as the traffic was at a standstill. There were a few accidents because many drivers were not courteous and tried to squeeze into line or would not let another car get into line and those accidents delayed us more.
In these stressful times, why not do what California does (which I learned when I visited my brother for five years when he was in school out there)? They let one car go, then the next line goes and so on. Everyone funnels into a lane and traffic moves smoothly and courteously. I even got angry at a man who cut me off and nearly hit me without realizing it because, you guessed it, he was on the cell phone. It was not a happy moment for me, but I finally got to my parents' home and went out to breakfast.
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On my return home, I wondered how Sloan Park in Bloomingdale and Appelt Park in Riverdale faired. I soon found out. They are not doing too well as the photographs show. It's a very scary time for those around the streams, which I now renamed "raging rivers." If we have more rain, which is predicted, I'm not sure how well everyone will cope.
Let's just hope for the best and try to stay dry.