Thursday, September 11, 2008

I'M A BUILDING ME AN ARC...

I know that most everyone is focused on the weather off the Atlantic coast. And to be perfectly honest I'm glad the coast I live on is on the other side of the continent. However tropical storm Lowell appears to have set up homesteading rights just off the southern tip of Baja. :c{ If you were to take a gander at a map of Mexico you would notice immediatly that Mazatlan is directly across the Sea of Cortez from Baja on the main land. Soooooo for 4 days now it has done nothing but rain. ;c{ And not just the drizzly whimpy kinda rain. During the short spells when it's not raining it's coming down like someone up there turned on the fire hose. Though I must mention we are thankful that it's a warm rain and warm tempeture. Ha see "tiny miracle" :c}

Because of the normal heat and humidity during 6 months a year our houses tend to have part of rooms open to the outside. Also by doing that you can get a breeze moving through the whole house. In our house our laundry room is opened , actually it is out side. It sits in a small atrium between the kitchen and work room, (If it ever stops raining I'll take a couple of pictures) Our back patio is walled in by 3 other houses so the only way it drains is through the floor drain. God forbid if the drain plugs. Hmmmm maybe an indoor swimming pool?? Our house is typical of all the house in the area. Luckily our part of the street is up on a hill a bit. so it puts us above sea level. There are plenty of neighborhoods that sit at or below sea level. Yep you guessed it,they have been bailing. One good reason to have cement & brick houses and tiles on the floor.

Right behind Maztlan are the Sierra Madre Mountains. When we get a lot of rain we not only have to contend with the wet stuff falling from the sky as it makes it's way to the ocean to be reunited with the rest of the family, we also have all the water running down out of the mountains on it's way to the reunion. In times like these THAT"S A LOT OF WATER!! It can be way more then our underground sewer systems can handle. It's more then enough volume and pressure to litterly blow the man hole covers off!! Not to worry. Some very smart people solved the problem of flying man hole covers (which can easily kill someone) by hinging one side. So that when the pressure builds to critical mass the cover blows open and spews out the water. Once the volume has dropped the cover drops back down. Works perfectly!!! Of course it is rather hillarious to hear a know it all (and we all know at lease one) tourist explaining just why there are hinges on the man hole covers!! :c}

Here are a couple of pictures posted in todays paper, showing the water in some of the streets.

I think you can see that here water up to the center of your wheels is taken in stride. In fact during the small breaks in the clouds the kids grab their soccer balls and head out for a pickup game of water soccer ;c}

Time for this little Bloglandian to call it a night. LW says it's my turn to make sure the water wings are inflated ;c] Take care and have a good day or night depending on the part of Bloglandia you are in.



3 comments:

Rustic Tarts said...

Now I understand - ark as in Noah's ark! I was trying to work out what kind of arc you were building!
We (my husband and I) enjoyed reading about your house layout and the manholes!
It's Friday evening here so I will see you tomorrow or yesterday...lol
Christina

L said...

Ha! I've been vindicated! I have been laughed at all my adult life for describing how we six sibs, as kids, would sit on our front porch in Detroit, watching the manhole covers blowing six feet in the air and landing with worse clatters than ever were attributed to Santa's sleigh!

Stay dry, Pattie... is that bright globe I see in the distance, over tu casa, the SUN? Yippee!! Could it be that the Rain Gods have finally run out of rainwater? Or, are they just busy building rainbows for someone besides Mazatlecos? Hasta pronto, amiga, Lee

Anonymous said...

Good words.

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