and rising...

You know that old Johnny Cash song... "how high's the water mama? Five feet high and rising..."

Well... we lived it yesterday and last night and still a bit this morning. I guess I wasn't weather watching as well as I normally would and we got the remanents of some tropical system or another passing through. The south wind and excessive rainfall made the Chesapeake Bay swell like my belly and creep over her banks... and our docks.

(That's a long way down. At least you splash if you fall.)

You see, we're a little old school here on the Bay. Go south to Florida or out west to Cali and they get that storms happen, so they have floating docks made of anything but wood. The boats and the docks move with the changing water levels. Here, we have fixed wooden docks with narrow walkways which means anytime the water levels change, we have to adjust the lines and such. I was out tugging our spring lines and adjusting like mad all afternoon. I figured, hey, strain away, who cares if it triggers labor at this point! (it didn't, by the way)

But then the water came all the way up and over the dock. And the power went off (again). And the solar regulator burped and shuddered and switched off. So I called Doug home early from work and we started getting ready for a long wet night along with our neighbors.

(Everyone was out taking photos, helping each other, staring in wonder.)

Of course, Zach thought it was one big, wet, party!

 (Doesn't every mama think thier boy walks on water? :) Hard to tell where the dock ends and the Bay begins.)

Playtime on the flooded docks went until we realized we had a small window to get back on the boat IF we were to get back on at all as all of these photos were taken at LOW tide.

The dock boards started to come loose and it was getting unsafe, so we climbed back aboard. I was thinking this would be the perfect time to go into labor, with the only way off the boat being a swan dive and a breast stroke. But alas, no action.

So with no power coming in from sun or dock plugs, and batteries slowly draining from the trickle charge we got in the cloud covered sky, we were grateful that we'd just made a batch of recycled beeswax votives (more on that another time).

(Zach peering out into the stormy night, waiting for daddy to come back from helping dock neighbors.)

(Looking in from the cockpit, it actually looked quite cozy.)

 A family drawing night, sounds of the storm guiding our imaginations, squinting by candlelight to see what colors we were actually using... wondering how high the water would get... Johnny Cash singing to me in my dreams all night long.