Buckets

I recently had the late night pleasure of bailing out a basement filled with water. Not as much pleasure as the owners of the house who have sadly spent several days without sleep, borrowing buying and probably wanting to steal sump pumps, buckets, hoses, and a new basement. Geysers spurting up from the cracks in the concrete floor, and no stopping the water that wanted to come in. In the northeast there was LOTS of flooding this past week, a much more scary situation for some then others, but a general feeling of not being able to do much about it at all is somewhat thrilling. Roads were washed away, dam's flooded, and the fact that peoples travel, and peoples belongings that make up their lives are easily lost when the rain wants to wash it away...
As I spent several hours filling buckets with water (which my back is paying for now) I chuckled to myself, because of buckets. When it boils down to it, when people are in human crisis, and for all the "wonders of technology" that exist, the tool that people turn to is the use of buckets to bail themselves out. When you have to deal with the fire or the flood yourself, what better thing is there to reach for than the old fashioned, age old glory we know as bucket.
I know a girl who wishes for an easter bucket for the holiday instead of a basket, and I heartily wish for the same, Happy Easter!

Natchaug River Flood

I apologize for the nasal quality of my voice in this video. I have the understandable seasonal cold. This is the Natchaug River, a really awesome sight when it floods after days of rain. Natchaug means "the land between the rivers" and this river certainly defines some aspects of life around here. From the roadside secret fishing and swimming spots, to the large foundation of an old silk mill the used to sit on it's banks back in the 1800's, to the indigenous people that lived here long ago, this is the place where I was born, and where I will always be from, and that land that I am indigenous to myself. Here's a little video that I took this afternoon, from the vantage point of a large standing rock on the side of the river where lots of people come to sun bath on in the summertime.