Lord. What's a Cubit?

The above is the punchline from a classic Bill Cosby routine, in which he is Noah, and God is giving him instructions about building an ark...

I thought last night that we'd have to build one, too. It rained and rained and rained...

Wifey and I settled in for a marathon watch session of our newest favorite show, "Breaking Bad." Around 630, it started coming down pretty hard. At 930, we realized that the rain had never let up. It was like a tropical storm, except the latest cyclone was no longer in existence.

It turns out that a storm cell, which would typically have blown through, got trapped by a stalled cold front right over Southeast Miami Dade. In other words, right above our heads.

We walked into our garage, and there was a fast moving stream from the pool area, through the foundation, and out the front. There were also, hopping around, 2 bullfrogs the size of ham sandwiches...

Luckily, the garage is the only part of our house at ground level. The builder and prior owner was an architect, and he over built the place, so that the lowest living area is probably 8 feet above grade. If there has to be a flood, the garage is the place to have it.

I next went around to my pond, and saw it had breached its banks. The water was actually higher than it was during Hurrican Katrina, which is the highest since we've lived here. Wifey yelled to the fish and turtles to stay where they were...

Fortunately, the rains stopped about 10, and by 11 the water had all receded. You couldn't even tell, in our garage, that there had been a flood. The water all found its way to the drainage system that sits to the South of the house. All we had was a cleaner concrete floor...

I called my friend Jeff, whose house is cut out of the oolite, and sits pretty low. Sure ennough, he had about 2 inches covering his whole first floor, but all the floors are stone, so he wasn't too concerned.

We were more anxious about our friends across the street, Pat and Susan, who have a rarity in Miami --a basement. They have a sump pump that keeps it dry, but sure enough Pat texted this am to tell me the basement was flooded, and a crew was coming out to pump out and dry the area.

Wifey thinks we should call a contractor, and see about waterproofing the foundation and wall of the garage. I don't think so. If we get a wet 1/4 garage every 10 years or so, I figure its simply our sacrificial offering to the rain gods...

Jeff's take is his usual funny one: time to move to a condo at, at minimum, the 3rd floor...

So into each garage some floodwaters must occasionally come. The bullfrogs are gone --I guess they figured it wiser to leave than be tortured by our 2 permanent and one visiting dog.

The pond is now barely lower -- and so far, no fish are flopping at the sides.

It's too cloudy for a rainbow, but that will come, I'm sure.