Oklahoma Gutter Corn

We are on the way to record yearly rainfall in much of Oklahoma. The most successive days without rain all year so far is seven, while we had one stretch of twenty straight days of rain. The grass is green and flowers blooming. Yesterday, I noticed that everything is so lush around my house that I have corn growing in my rain gutter. One ear is almost ready to eat.
The corn seeds got into the gutter from the multitude of birds in my backyard. Marilyn feeds them daily. Here is a pic of the corn growing in my gutter, in case you don’t believe me.

http://www.ericwilder.com/

Katrina's Blues

I was up late last night making final changes on a video titled Katrina’s Blues. The video is a slideshow of New Orleans, before, during and after Hurricane Katrina and features the poignant lyrics of Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927. As if to herald the production, Oklahoma’s weather grew rainy as I turned off the last light and went to sleep.

Heavy rain continued throughout the night. This morning, two inches of water awaited me as I walked onto my sunken living room floor. The water had pooled up from six or seven inches of standing water in my sloping back yard, high enough to flood my living room. When I called a water damage-restoration company to help me, I learned that my insurance does not cover flood damage.

Unlike many of the residents of New Orleans, I didn’t suffer a complete loss, in my case probably only a few thousand dollars or so (yes, even a little water can do lots of damage). Still, it gives me pause to consider the harm done by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and what hardships the inhabitants of New Orleans endured and continue to endure almost a year and a half later.

Please check out my video on YouTube and say a prayer for the people of south Louisiana. While you’re at it, you might add a few words for all the people ravished by recent and continuing flooding in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, and many of the farmers that have lost all their crops this year.

http://www.ericwilder.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnzY_Kmz0Uc