I haven't left the house in two days except to walk idly around the yard once or twice when the rain abated.  It hasn't poured like this since I moved to the Okanagan in the fall of 2010. I have a friend who's lived here longer and said the same thing yesterday. It rained so hard on Friday night that I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. It was not a clatter on the roof that awoke me but a scary sucking sound coming from the bathroom. I soon discovered; however, that the source was the roof. It is called a flat roof but it's actually slightly sloped down to a drain in the middle, like the bottom of a swimming pool. A roofer who checked it when I first moved in told me that they don't make flat roofs like that any more; it's too expensive and there are bylaws prohibiting the draining of rain water into the city sewage system. But he said that mine was well made and would last many more years. It passed a real test the other night. Rain rushed to the drain and down the pipe and across the basement ceiling to the main vertical stack through which all the water leaves the house to join the city sewer with such force it even sucked the water out of the upstairs toilet and made the sink and tub sound as if they had the dry heaves. Once I saw that the sound and fury in the bathroom really signified nothing, I went downstairs to make sure all was dry there. The noise in the ceiling was loud, but there was no water. Whew 😅! There have been winds with the rain. A heavy branch was blown off a maple tree behind my neighbour's house. It dropped near my parking area, so I have moved my little Mazda to the front street so it will be safe until the weather returns to normal. Or are we going to have to get used to a 'new normal' in weather too. Probably. 

In 2020 we seem to be starting to reap the final harvest of colonialism and the industrial revolution. 

This makes me think of Shylock's lines in 'The Merchant of Venice'.

" The villainy you teach me I will execute - and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction."

It shall go hard for those of us who have benefitted from colonialism and the industrial revolution, but for the earth itself and for those who have suffered for centuries on it, things might be looking up. And that's a good thing. 

The rain better stop so that I can get outside and give my little old grey cells a break. 

Iris and poppies in the front yard at sunset on Thursday evening. 

Happier days, outside