Rain Water....

It's November 5th. It's also raining. There's A Red Alert out for flash flooding. 

Last week, the Big City for us in Codiponte, Aulla, got hit with a river tsunami!!! No earthquake, just a lot of rain... 6 and a half feet of water poured down in an afternoon!!! Yes, I know. How could that be? ... overwhelming the Magra River, which passes by on its way to the Mediterranean Sea. A couple of towns of the Cinque Terre also got washed away, as did many towns along the Vara River at the very edge of the Lunigiana. Again, too much rain water in a very short time. People & businesses were devastated. You can clean & dis-infect all you want. Rebuilding lives is another story... sadly. 

Yesterday, parts of Genoa got washed away and right about the time I was tootling into town with The Dog from Codiponte. Thought I best get back to town before the worst were to hit in the afternoon or, so said the radio news-guys. I popped out of a tunnel at Nervi... the southern coastal confine of the city... into a massive wall of rain. So much for that. I could only do about 15 mph. Managed to safely arrive at a drenched toll-booth. The city was KO-ed!!! No electricity... no traffic lights... traffic in TILT... no cellphone service... no land-line service either... and other annoyances. Ran my obligatory errand  of visiting my bank. Blessedly, money isn't always electronic!!!... before heading home. No one could drive their damn cars. Took ages & ages for me to get to the dry land of our garage. Once in the house, I turned on the TV to see that parts of the city were under meters high rushing water. 7 dead too!!! The authorities have forbidden cars in the central part of the city today & tomorrow... Saturday & Sunday... in anticipation of more flash floods. Eerie scene outside. NO CARS!!! 

So much for My Grand Return to Home Base after a long AND arduous summer at il Poggiolo. But there are still threads to stitch before I can take a break from my Tuscan farm house...

the electrician is scheduled to finish his work on l'Appartamento Azzurro next week. Ditto for the builder and that darn fireplace. And damn, if my new washing machine isn't on the blink.... dammit it all to Hell!!! I have already done six loads of laundry in Genoa thanks to it. The repair guy is digging himself out of the mud & debris down in Aulla.
I would be so pleased if all were finished & repaired before I get on Lufthansa for Thanksgiving in North Carolina on the 22nd. God! Are you listening? Do something nice, please!!! Gads.