Another day of rain - and I mean POURING rain. It's been coming down quite heavily since early morning. Fred got up as usual at first light, around 5:30. I hardly ever find anything important enough to get out of bed at that hour for, so I sure wasn't about to rise and shine early on this kind of day. I slept in and I apparently haven't missed much. My day hasn't been very exciting so far except what I'm hearing on my scanner.

There are overflowing culverts - on Rt. 14 a cedar swamp is flooded and there's three feet of water rushing across the road. In West Danville, the culvert by Indian Joe's can't handle the rush of water and it's flowing across the road depositing gravel from the road above onto the beach and into the pond. Also in front of Hasting's Store there's a water problem. Sounds like a fourth pond may have formed there. Drive carefully, please. Another call was about a tree down and burning on power lines - don't know where that was. Busy day for work crews and emergency teams.

Steve Allen sent this about the picture of the old car I posted the other day. I really didn't pay much attention to it because it was raining and I didn't want to linger - it just looked like a Chevrolet from the rear (sorry, Don Walker - they all look alike to me). Anyway, here's Steve's e-mail:

Jane, that old car you saw (actually a '55 Ford) was probably headed for the old car meet in Stowe this weekend. I think they expect over 1000 antique vehicles! Any car over 25 years old is considered an antique - glad that doesn't apply to us humans! The meet is held on the big field on the left just before you get into Stowe - afraid they're in for a soggy time this weekend! A lot of those cars come right over RT 2 on their way to the show - we saw a whole trailer truck full of 'em last evening rolling through West Danville.

Steve

Thanks, Steve. Now that I look more closely at the picture, I should have known - I used to drive one a lot like that . . . before that there was the Ford convertible and after the kids came, a station wagon - stages of life defined by the cars we drove.

In case you didn't look at the comments page on home page, Helen Morrison has made a good point about people walking their dogs without a leash. It's nice to be able to let a dog go loose, but very dangerous on roads that are heavily traveled like West Shore Road is. People in cottages along W. Shore Road may not realize that the stretch they walk is but a small part of the road system that serves many homes, both year around and vacation spots, and with those homes comes traffic from residents, service providers and visitors. West Shore Road is different in that respect from other roads around the lake that serve only the summer residents. So do be careful, take precautions by keeping well to the side of the road when walking, and keep your dogs close.

As for the cat situation - it is very distressing to find a bedraggled cat huddled in the snow, left behind by someone who has moved. Every fall this seems to happen here - we don't know if these cats are strays that hang around with summer folks and become temporary family pets or what - but whatever the category (no pun intended), if you have a cat around in the summer, please, for the sake of the poor animal, don't just lock up and leave it behind. Take it to one of the vets and ask that they find it a home. There used to be working farms in the area and cats could generally find a place to get inside to stay warm and be fed; but this is no longer the case in this immediate area, so the poor animals are left to fend for themselves in deep snow and severe cold, with no place to go.

Thanks, Helen, for reminding people.