Yesterday it rained in Baltimore. Not a gentle spring shower kind of rain, and not the usual “this is how it rains in Prague when I’m depressed” gray March rain. This was sideways rain, where the windows on all four corners of the house are getting hit simultaneously and the cats are running to find high ground before the water rises above the litter box. Jen and I peered out the kitchen window at the swollen river winding its way through our backyard down to the bog behind the greenhouse. The bog that I wrote about earlier quickly turned into a lake behind our neighbor’s house, flooding the lower 1/5 of his property.

To my suprise, I got a call from my councilman (actually one of his aides) yesterday, and he was kind enough to answer all my questions to the best of his ability. The construction behind us is for new storm drains, and it’s supposed to pull all the water off the low spots behind our houses. Whether this will work or not, I can’t say, because in my non-engineer’s opinion, they’re ending the drains a yard and a half short. Supposedly the engineer in charge is going to call me and talk me through it all; I hope they reconsider the plan so that we don’t have to dodge mosquitoes all summer long.