Oregon Rain

I had a few errands to run today. Like a good little commuter I planned my route to save time and gas. My first stop was the dump (aren't you jealous??). I stopped at the dump to drop off our recycling that has piled up in the shed over the last few weeks. I then drove to Safeway to secure a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. I bought our 10-pounder and stopped at a mailbox to mail some thank you notes. Not too far away was Lowe's where I purchased some wood putty to fill in the flaws shown off by our baseboards on our "not so level" floor. After Lowe's, I went to Fred Meyer to shop for our Thanksgiving Day menu. (We regularly shop at Freddy's. Safeway was just a special stop). We had just received our coupons in the mail for being frequent shoppers at Freddy's and by the time I picked up every item on my list and used our coupons, I only had to pay $1.21! Thrilled with my savings, I headed over to Staples to get some photo ink/paper so I can work on a Christmas present for my mother-in-law.

This sounds like a rather ordinary Saturday, however, this is Oregon and it is now November. Oregon + November = RAIN. Today's rain was not your normal, inconvenient drizzle. Today's rain was monsoon style! Water filled the roads, visibility was slight, and traffic was slow. I believe I drove about 15 mph on the town roads. Windshield wipers were on the fastest possible setting, and Oregonian's were layered in their rain gear. Well, most Oregonian's were. I have to leave myself out of that category as I do not yet have decent rain gear. I completed all my errands in a hat, hoodie, jeans and sneakers. To say the least, I got a tad bit wet. Decent rain gear is on my Christmas list this year....

Anyhow, driving around town at a much slower pace gave me some time to think about life, my life in particular. Soon I'll have a career choice to make (do I stay in Special Ed. or move to Language Arts?), an educational choice to make (do I start grad. school now with a baby on the way?), future mommy choices to make, and thousands of other day to day choices we are all faced with.

Coincidentally, our plumbing had issues again. I started a load of laundry Wednesday night which caused our toilet to overflow. I dare compare the amount of water that came out of our toilet to the amount of rain that fell today. Water instantly filled the floor from one end of the bathroom to the other. Of course, I was home alone. I used every single rag in our house in attempts to soak up the mess. I even pulled from our regular stash of towels (which are now rags). I have never seen such a large amount of water spill from a toilet. Roto-Rooter came Thursday and cleared the pipes again. All is well in our world of plumbing, and we are thankful that today's torrid water fall has not come from our toilet!