Where's Noah?

Raindrops on Mums

[Macro Straight Out of the Camera]

Liquid formula, known to scientists as H(OH) or H2O, or water, has been falling in my area since Sept. 12. Sometimes light and steady, other times deluges for 5-10 minutes; we've accumulated several inches.

The current forecast is for periods of showers and sun through Wednesday, Sept. 23, but lately these forecasts seem to be extended daily into the future.

Rainfall reports of bloggers and family in Texas and central Arkansas are even greater than here. An half brother in Texas had 6 inches a few days ago.

On a rainy Wednesday, I caught this photo of a fiberoptics technician working in a tent on the front corner of my lot at a new dropbox for my home. An out-of-state contractor, he appeared to have a self-contained mini-motor home/work home on wheels.

Our independent telephone company has designated a huge outlay of funding to upgrade service to our little town using underground fiberoptic wiring. My neighborhood which is a part of Phase- I is nearly completed.

Upon completion of Phase-I and activation, the phone company may provide faster DSL or video feeds (essentially cable TV) and possibly a different kind of telephone service.

Contractors work with deadlines and are often penalized for unmet deadlines, so if work can continue during inclement weather, it usually does. Hence this technician is splicing and connecting various fiberoptic cables, protected from the elements by his utilitarian tent.

Now if we had Noah among us, he had a direct pipeline (maybe not the best word) to God, who kept telling him when it was gonna rain, and how much. I doubt Noah knew how big " the whole world" was, but he had a Texas sized 10 gallon hat full of FAITH.

Noah's God inspired instructions included heavenly blueprints for building a giant ship called an ARK of certain dimensions and materials. It's a good thing Noah had the pipeline, because nobody knows exactly what gopher wood is! I trust if I'm told to build an ARK, God will pick measurements and materials like oak so I can fulfill his orders. [My beloved 100+ year old red oak, which bit the dust in our 1000-year ice storm, would have been a good start on an ARK!] 

Then there were those 120 years of preaching, not to mention the subject was RAINFALL for 40 days and nights, an event which heretofore had never happened. No doubt Noah took a lot of hootin', hollarin', hecklin' and rolling-on-the-ground, side-splitting laughter from his contemporaries, His only converts were seven members of his immediate family.

I wondered if 120 years could be classified as preaching without ceasing. Modern day men of the cloth point to Noah, a "preacher of righteousness," for their inspiration of endurance, "keeping the faith" in difficult times and unbelieving audiences.

My husband will testify I could easily preach 120 days without ceasing, but years, he would be long gone.

When it came time to pack and move into the ARK he had to round up a litany of animals not to mention his  seven family members. He had a long checklist.

But the reward of a covenant signified by the beautiful rainbow kept driving Noah for those 120 years.

Whether the rainfall spigot is controlled by natural forces of the universe, or divine intervention, a Creative Force set the universe and probably other universes still unknown, into being.

Rainfall, or the lack thereof, became a natural event in the lives of Biblical people living in primarily agricultural settings. Today, is not much different, but encompasses the earth. No agriculture, no food; no vegetation, no oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange. Unfortunately, humans have disturbed the O2-CO2 balance. 

This year has been a "wet" year so far in Northern Arkansas, but the amounts generally have been sufficient, without overloading our flood controls, as in recent years.

The importance of rain reminds me not too fret when the days are gloomy.

May I suggest an awe-inspiring series of  of DVDs originally commissioned by BBC, shown on the Discovery Channel, THE PLANET EARTH. It is being re-runned periodically, on Animal Planet, TLC and probably other cable channels, too. What better way to while away a rainy day, than an educational, beautifully filmed series on our planet?

The photography is unbelievable...I repeat- UNBELIEVABLE!  I bought the 4-DVD series so I could revel leisurely through the superb cinematography, importance of rain forests, jungles, balance /original harmony of life on the planet. It doesn't sugar-coat man's damaging contribution to imbalances.

Three segments stood out to me: (1) the plight of the polar bear (2) the tracking of a rare large cat (in Russia, I think) by photographers for months in the extremely harsh conditions for a shot of the rare cat. (3) the time-lapse photography of the effect of cutting ONE tree out of a forest canopy--life sprang up in response to the small amount of sunlight from one hole in the canopy.

I am sure The Planet Earth is available in libraries and video rental stores. My set was purchased from the Discovery Channel and included a bonus disk entitled Planet Earth: the Future. There are newer series like The Blue Planet: Seas of Life. Amazon.com has many listings.

I am writing this on Thurs. Sept. 17 for posting 19th. I spent my morning at the opthamalogist office. I was two years overdue.

A free screening glaucoma test in May with borderline reading in right eye convinced me I should overcome my dislike of the more comprehensive glaucoma tests. It is very hard to touch my eyeball, even numbed. It is a reaction to a childhood event--I know all in my head.

After a dose of Valium we managed with much difficulty to accomplish a better reading. The dilated eye exam results indicated other factors pointing to glaucoma in the right eye, maybe both eyes.

While dilated, three other tests were performed and I return Monday for a final test. I expect to be put on drops. I think we have caught it early with out damage to my eye. Peripheral vision seems to be fine, but that is Monday's test.

Believe me I can handle drops in eye once or twice daily. It is just one of those little annoyances that come with age.

I bought some computer-only glasses, and special clip-on polarized sunglasses for fishing and/or driving, ever though I have Transition lenses.

POST SCRIPT: ALL PHOTOS TODAY ARE CLICKABLE TO ENLARGE. IT SEEMS IF YOU MOVE THEM AROUND ALOT SOME OF THE HTML GETS SEPARATED, ESPECIALLY THE PART THAT ENABLES THAT FEATURE. 

NOW I HAVE TO LEARN SOME HTML....YUCK.