Foggy Morning Pond: The Calm Before the Storm

When I awoke on Thursday morning, there was an amazing fog everywhere, just perfect for picture taking. So I arranged my morning route to include a few quick stops on my drive to work. I just had to see and capture that wonderful fog!

My first stop was one of my favorite little local ponds. This is the same pond with the tiny boat and the little wooden dock (that's the very tip of the dock in the far right center of photo) that you have seen in several to many prior blips. Here are just a few:

View from the Dock
Not an Ending
Postcard from the Land of Enchantment
The Song of the Open Boat
The Boat of the Loved Lost Soul

On this particular morning, the fog was creeping around like a live creature and the sun was trying to peek through. It was very atmospheric, fine and delightful conditions for taking photos!

From there, I made two stops along Spring Creek, and I found the water calm and the conditions lovely for photography. More mist rising. A quiet morning. So peaceful in the fog. I visited a new little bridge over the creek; took pictures of the covered bridge; wished for several hours of extra time for we happy three: just the fog and my camera and me.

I went to work knowing that our region was expected to receive some thunderstorms in the afternoon. What I did not know was the severity of the storms we would get.

I had planned to do my weekly grocery shopping after work on this day, but when I went out and got in my car after work, it was raining heavily, I got soaked just in the few minutes it took to get to my car (even with an umbrella), visibility was beyond poor, and my car began hydroplaning on the expressway.

Needless to say, I decided at the last minute to reschedule my grocery trip to another day - I just threw in the towel and went home - and I am glad I did. Little did I know how wise that decision would turn out to be.

Later on this day, the downpours would cause major flooding throughout central Pennsylvania and parts of several other states, and even some possible tornadoes (I saw several locally posted videos online and it sure LOOKED like some of them were real!). Spring Creek, that bucolic, lovely, little creek I had visited that morning, rose up out of its banks and flooded portions of several roads, which were closed.

By evening, many cars were stranded, the college boys were swimming in newly formed pools on the downtown backstreets, and many more local roads were closed.

A bit west of us, the town of DuBois was closed and put on lockdown, with several feet of water flooding the entire town. (To see pictures, do a google image search on "flooding in DuBois, PA, June 27, 2013.")

The song for this day is not really to accompany this picture, but to accompany the story of what came after: which was the endless storms, and the floods. This is one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, and I've been singing it since I was a tiny child: Five Feet High and Rising.

How high's the water, Mama?
Two feet high and risin'
How high's the water, Papa?
Two feet high and risin'

We can make it to the road in a homemade boat
That's the only thing we got left that'll float
It's already over all the wheat and the oats,
Two feet high and risin'

P.S. On Friday, we're expecting "a couple of thunderstorms" in the afternoon. Yeah, right, and that's what they said yesterday . . .