May 26-June 1, 2019

Weather | 5/26, 4.34" rain, 61°, 82° | 5/27, 65°, 81° | 5/28, 0.20" rain, 65°, 79° | 5/29, 2.28" rain, 59°, 79° | 5/30, 0.11" rain, 59°, 79° | 5/31, 0.02" rain, 55°, 79° | 6/1, 0.23" rain, 61°, 83° |

• Sunday (5/26): Got 4.27" of rain overnight. Checked road conditions online and Highway 156 was closed. Texted Petco fellow employees to tell them I might not make it to work. Went north to Lewistown and made it to Highway 6 and into Quincy. Had 5 of my 6 classes, with the woman with a white husky called Alaska bailing out like she always seems to do. Left work early, since Petco had 3 others going until closing time. Bought birthday cards from me and Bill for Mary, plus 2 dianthus plants for Mary at Walmart. Fixed smoked eggs and watched The Lake House and October Sky.
• Monday (5/27): Mary's 53rd birthday, today. Fished in the Swim Pond. Bill caught 3 fish, Mary caught 1, and I caught a very large one that we suspected was a female, so I put her back. Filleted the 4 fish we kept and ate them...very yummy. Bill left around 5:30. I listened to game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals and Boston beat St. Louis, 4-2. Katie called. Her washing machine wasn't draining.
• Tuesday (5/28): Hard to get to do things outside, due to constant thunderstorms. We haven't planted a garden and it's a good thing, because it's mostly under water. First thunderstorm arrived at noon. In the evening, we had a thunderstorm after thunderstorm starting at 9:30. I got the rain gutter up above the 1st-floor north window AC. It works great at keeping water from pouring onto the outside of the AC.
• Wednesday (5/29): Woke to deep blue sky. We got 2.07" of rain overnight. Highway 156 is closed again, due to flooding. Hannibal has downtown businesses flooded after their storm sewer pipe exploded due to 2-3" of rain in a short time period. A semi truck ran into several feet of water on Highway 61 north of Canton. The driver was rescued from his truck via a rubber raft. The Memorial Bridge crossing the Mississippi at Quincy was closed yesterday morning, due to flooding. Mary figured up rain amounts and we've received 12.24" so far this month, a new record for us.
• Thursday (5/30): Went to work early to get chicken food and oil for the Buick at Farm & Home. Trained 2 dogs in 2 classes and got handouts printed for the following week. At 8 pm, learned West Quincy was under manditory evacuation, due to potential levy failure. When I left work to go home, traffic was blocked going west over the Bayview Bridge crossing the Mississippi, so I decided to drive I-72 south on the Illinois side of the river to Hannibal and Highway 61 north on the Missouri side to home. While I was still in Quincy, Mary texted me letting me know westbound traffic over Bayview Bridge opened, but I have an app on my phone that shuts off messages and phone calls while I'm driving, so I never got the message. Damn! Got home at 11:30. The dike never failed, but they expect it might, because a surge of water is flowing down the Mississippi, due to the U.S. Corps of Engineers releasing water from a lake in Iowa. At home, Mary cut tall grass on the south end of the far garden with a scythe. Grass is growing too fast and too high to keep up with by using a lawn mower. Besides, you can cut grass with a scythe with standing water all around...can't do it with a mower.
• Friday (5/31): Added 2 support metal posts, metal braces, and tightened cross-wires on the NW corner of the near garden. Also added tightened cross-wires on the SW corner. Mary washed clothes and mowed the lane.
• Saturday (6/1): Worked 8-3 at Petco. Drove home and sat out a thunderstorm, then Mary and I went to Germanfest in Quincy. While driving down the lane to leave, swerved to miss a bullfrog the size of a dinner plate. Listened to a German band, ate brats, and drank 2 very good beers. We were there 3 hours...left when bands changed to some '70s-vintage rock band. Afterwards, shopped at Menard's for paint for the mailbox and wood stove and Walmart for food.