Who'll stop the rain?

This is (was) a park

The other day I was walking from my car to the entrance of a store when a woman rolled down the window in  her car yelled at me, "I really love your hair!". A second woman followed me into the store, tapped me on the shoulder and said "I really like your hair. Can I take a picture of it?". Then,  after I made my purchase and started to walk away from the counter, the cashier said, "I'm digging the fancy green," in reference to the green pants I happened to be wearing because all my other pants needed washing. As I stood in line in a second store waiting to buy groceries, the woman behind me said, "I like how green you are." Neither my standard green jeans or my typical bob haircut are exceptional or noteworthy in any way. People in our town are just incredibly nice. So nice that when Ollie, Ivy and I were out for a walk and Ollie took care of some business milliseconds before the sprinklers turned on right where the mess needed to be bagged, a man across the street saw my look of panic and yelled, "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it!" so the dog, toddler, and I could flee the scene relatively dry. I like to think of myself as a decent  person, but I really don't think I have it in  me to clean up someone else's dog's poop.  That's straight up altruism. 

So the floods in Longmont this past week are very much a case of bad things  happening to good people. The best people.  Our family is fine.  We live on one of the highest points  in town in a second story apartment. Our biggest inconvenience has been delayed text messages. And while we're extremely grateful for our well-being, and enjoying the time spent together while Stephen's classes are canceled and the CU campus closed, a half a mile to the west basements are full of water, and areas of land are submerged, and major roads remain closed. A few miles further west and entire houses are ruined, victims are gathered at the YMCA, and rescuers are searching for the unaccounted for. 

And now I should end this post with a take away or deep philosophical statement I don't know what that should be. It's raining again, so the Walter family will be spending the day eating popcorn and watching Muppet  movies. I guess I just hope that every lovely person I've encountered in this small, quirky place will also be spending the  day warm and dry. And I hope the sun comes out soon.