What I came home to

[Worm]

It's been raining here in Michigan for 19 days this May. When I came home tonight, this is what I see from the end of my driveway.



Tomorrow the river is supposed to crest. This is the highest I've seen it in the 10 years that I've lived here. No worries about my house though, it's about 5 foot above the road level, well, no worries yet anyway.

[Corey]

Look on the bright side, you can put away the dousing rods for a few weeks...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Worm]

Lake Michigan levels are up six-inches in three weeks and two-inches in the past five days. Every extra inch means an extra hundred tons of freight can be carried on ships, which could ultimately mean lower energy prices

I can't even imagine how much water it would take to bring Lake Michigan up 6 inches. Its a huge lake!

Look on the bright side, you can put away the dousing rods for a few weeks...

[Corey]

I smell a book deal. "Worm's Guide : How to Buy Lakeside Property at Residential Property Prices"

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[TJ_Tigger]

Yikes and I thought we had a lot of water. It is raining now again. After a sunny day and more rain. They have flash flooding warnings on the TV every 10 mins. Time to get the boat Corey was talking about.

[Corey]

I smell another book... "Tigger's Guide to Patio Flyfishing".

That reminds me. When I was a younger, I was once in a rock band called, "The Red Fissure Show" no lie. Shortlived but what a great name.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Worm]

Same here Tigg. There was even a mud slide here. All the local tv stations were going nuts over what amounted to be a small hill washing out into the roadway. A car even got stuck trying go through it. Sometimes the local stations here get a bit carried away with the weather. Around 5 years ago, we had a huge wind storm rip through the area. Most the stations here were caught with their pants down. Since then, anytime the temperature changes 5 degrees, they break in with a special weather bulletin. Its getting quite annoying, almost to the point where when I hear the sounder for an emerency situation, I'm barely paying attention.

Yikes and I thought we had a lot of water. It is raining now again. After a sunny day and more rain. They have flash flooding warnings on the TV every 10 mins. Time to get the boat Corey was talking about.

[Lorne]

Ah, flooding.

I grew up in an area that floods every spring. (Most of southern Manitoba is an ancient lake bed, and seems bent on regaining its once-upon wetness.)

When I was a kid I thought it was cool being able to do the annual "float around our yard in a raft." Fortunately our home was pretty safe, since we were the first to build on that parcel of land, and my Dad picked the only lot for miles around that had a high spot which wouldn't flood (although it came close a couple times).

Now that I'm of house-owning age and have spent a fair portion of my life in a sandbag line, I find flooding decidedly less cool.

Still, there's something about disastrous times that exposes the best sides of people...in the end, adversity is just an opportunity for one soul to help another. Hardship is the furnace within which communities are forged; when so many people need help at once, the goodness and kindness of your neighbours is harder to overlook.

Thank goodness your home isn't threatened, Worm. Is there another way out from your place, or are you stranded on that road for a while?

[TJ_Tigger]

Here is the river in down town CR. Usually this portion of the river, which is downstream from a dam that runs under the freeway, is usually shallow enough you could walk across the river without getting your knees wet. Now it is over 15 feet deep and probably closer to 20'.

Here are some addition pictures.

http://s94928149.onlinehome.us/flood/

[Brett]

TJ,

What software did you use to generate the nifty Web page with the bulliten board?

- Brett

[TJ_Tigger]

TJ,

What software did you use to generate the nifty Web page with the bulliten board?

- Brett

The product is CompuPic Pro from www.photodex.com . I have been using it as a picture manager for . . . well I lost count of the years . . . I guess since before it was called CompuPic Pro. I really like the feature to create the thumbnail web pages, which is only available in the pro version. It is quick and easy. It is one of the main reasons, along with their Advanced Batch conversion tool that I continue to use it.

Only problem is that it is starting to get a little dated and has not been updated since I think September. Used to be that they had one update per quarter. With other picture management software out there I will try them and then come back to this one because it does what I want, for the most part.

Tigg

[Brett]

Cool. Thanks. I will check it out.

[Corey]

What I like most is that Tigg is such a good photographer that the photos are mostly beautiful, which belies the disastrous nature of the subject matter. For example, "P5264398", if I didn't know better I'd just think that was a nicely done park shot...

For my money Tigg is the best amateur photographer I've come across online. I've seen lots of work by many professionals which pales in comparison. Certain shots, such as "P5264407", show a deep natural understanding of composition. (although I would have brought the whole frame up a tiny bit to give a sliver more airspace above the building in order to balance the water mass) But the point being that shots like that do not happen accidentally, Tigg may be humble, but he's packing some hardcore skills behind the shutter.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[TJ_Tigger]

What I like most is that Tigg is such a good photographer that the photos are mostly beautiful, which belies the disastrous nature of the subject matter. For example, "P5264398", if I didn't know better I'd just think that was a nicely done park shot...

For my money Tigg is the best amateur photographer I've come across online. I've seen lots of work by many professionals which pales in comparison. Certain shots, such as "P5264407", show a deep natural understanding of composition. (although I would have brought the whole frame up a tiny bit to give a sliver more airspace above the building in order to balance the water mass) But the point being that shots like that do not happen accidentally, Tigg may be humble, but he's packing some hardcore skills behind the shutter.

Thankyou, you are too kind. My point and shoot camera and I try our best. It is either I am lucky with the compositions, planned for them, or I took hundreds of pics on digital media and picked out those that seemd to be ok.

BTW, on P5264394 the bottom of the arch is 20' deep. That picture was from yesterday and it is about 1' higher today.

[Corey]

Naw, I've been in this game too long to know for sure that ain't luck, but OK, I'll go along with the humility thing anyhow. 1' in one day? Yowch! Sounds like a new fad diet slogan. Things sound like they're getting kind of serious. I hope this thing levels off fast for you guys. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love swimming, just not in my living room.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software