The Great Flood of 2014

Ok so I know I said I was gonna try and catch up on all the fun summer things that went down the last couple months, but I've decided to blog about something else instead. I know, I'm fickle. If you think that's bad, just ask me what I want to eat for dinner.

So it rained here in Arizona yesterday. Or rather, Sunday in the middle of the night through Monday morning. Like, rained really hard. Like rained so much that freeways were flooded, cars were stranded, school districts were closed, and the Governor declared a state of emergency. Like, rained so much that Nate and I left for work in my car and couldn't even get out of our neighborhood it was so flooded; we had to turn around and go back to get his truck to make it through all the water.

Source 

Source

Also, please note the hashtag: #turnarounddontdrown. Oh Jan... I bet she thought of that one herself.

It was so flooded everywhere that the Department of Transportation didn't even know where to begin.

Whoever runs that Twitter had the busiest morning of their life. But actually, shout out to them cause they did a fantastic job at keeping us all up-to-date on flood areas, freeway closures, etc. If you drive in Arizona, go follow them now.

So all that to say, since our neighborhood was absolutely flooded, Nate and I decided to make the most of it and take our kayaks out to do some paddling around in what was a nice green belt area. Cause I dunno, that's what you should do right?

Let me give you some perspective; this is what it should look like behind my house:

Ignore the Christmas picture part; I didn't have any other photos to use. But do notice the nice sidewalks and grassy areas.

You don't have to ignore the Christmas Picture part in this one cause my dogs are just too cute to ignore. Especially with their Reindeer antlers on. ...But again, sidewalks for walking, grass for.....taking Christmas pictures.

This is what it looked like yesterday afternoon:

There were ducks and everything.

You guys, we had our own personal canals to just paddle all around in. I felt like I was in Italy or something. You know how they have the canals, like, in the middle of the city? Except less Italian-chic and more suburbia-Arizona. Or maybe kind of like the Venetian in Vegas...except less expensive (read, "free") and no singing men on the back of my boat. Although maybe that could be a possibility if I did some convincing with Nate.

But seriously though, I knew my HOA fees were gonna be used for a purpose some day - and that purpose was to build the green belt behind my house that doubled as a waterway. And then the HOA looked up to the heavens, raised their hands and said, "Let the rains come," and then it rained, and the green belt flooded and became that waterway, and Nate and I kayaked it.

...That's how I have it in my head anyway.

So I mean, the state of Arizona was basically almost sunk yesterday, but things could always be worse. For example, you could've not kayaked down the green belt behind your house.

Lemonade out of lemons, people.