Go ahead, blame me for anything you want to – I guess I deserve it
OK, I give up.
I raise my right hand and swear I will never, ever, write about the weather in this column space again.
It seems that there are some folks out there who are blaming me for causing some of the bad weather to turn even worse.
If I write about snow, we get a blizzard, they say. If I write about drought, it gets drier. If I comment on the rain, like I did last week, it gets rainier.
And, I guess last week in this column I also mentioned flooding, and some of my personal experiences with flooding over the past years, and, you guessed it.
It got floodier. Er, I mean, more floody. Or floodiest.
Whatever.
Last weekend there was water everywhere, it seemed. In farm fields, on streets, in yards and basements, covering the go kart track, ballfields, Putnam Park, backyards of people living near the river, Riverside Golf Course.
And, it was not just here. It was in Mankato, St. Peter, Jackson, Springfield, Northern Iowa and, well, you get the idea. It was everywhere.
Not everyone was blaming me, but at least some folks suggested that it was certainly more than coincidental that I write about rain and floods and the area has the most rain in some years, and then some of the worst flooding in a long, long time.
Then the Rapidan Dam was nearly collapsing, and the water went around the side of the dam. It made news across the state and then it went national, making the news on the Today Show, Good Morning America and the Weather Channel, among others.
I started getting emails, text messages and phone calls from folks a long ways from Blue Earth checking to see if we were alright here in Blue Earth.
I guess they had seen that this Rapidan Dam was on the Blue Earth River and was on the verge of collapse. They feared that meant that the city of Blue Earth might be wiped out from the ensuing flood waters if and when the dam failed.
I had to explain to them that the Blue Earth River in Blue Earth flows to the north, to the Rapidan Dam, then flows from there into the Minnesota River near Mankato.
That meant that if the dam broke, it would raise the river levels in the Minnesota River in Mankato, and the levels of the Blue Earth River, here in Blue Earth, might actually go down a bit.
There are plenty of flooded fields and basements in this area, but a lot of it seems to be already receding. The worst damage we have seen is, of course, the road to the Riverside Town and Country Golf Course, which totally collapsed alongside the river.
Even worse, the other way to the golf course clubhouse was underwater, meaning it was difficult, if not impossible, to get there. Unless a person walked or took a golf cart across the first hole.
The floods were not the only thing I was getting the blame for. On Saturday I went to Kiester for the Kiester Days Parade.
When I got to Kiester it was pretty nice, sunny and humid. And the dark cloud was in the west and getting closer.
It started to rain at around 2:50, and at 3 p.m., the time the parade was to start, it was an absolute downpour. What few people who were on the main street for the parade were taking shelter or getting soaked, or both.
I had a hard time believing there would be a parade, or it would be delayed, but by golly, at 3 p.m. the sirens started up and so did the parade.
It was without a doubt the wettest parade I have ever been at trying to take photos. I got drenched, my camera got wet, my camera bag was wet, everyone watching the parade was wet and so were most of the people in the parade.
Twenty minutes after the parade was over the rain quit and it was sunny again.
I had stupidly told some folks there that when I had left Blue Earth at 2 p.m. there was a dark cloud over the town and it was starting to rain.
That dark cloud seemed to be following me as I drove to Kiester.
“Oh, so you’re the one to blame for all this rain on our parade,” they said. I replied that they just might be correct about that.
And, after all, I had written my column about rain and flooding last week.
Yep, I am beginning to see a correlation.
So, I do hereby swear I will never again write about the weather.
Unless, of course, there is a week when I can’t think of a single, solitary other thing to write about. Then I pledge to write about how nice the weather is, in hopes that would mean it would get even nicier, er, I mean nicer.