Setting The Mood

I personally don't watch the news. I don't read news papers either. I probably should, considering I'm a mother and wife now. Plus I'm going to be thirty soon. It seems like the " responsible adult" thing to do. I mean I should be more concerned with the world around me or at least try to be. Right? I don't really have any excuse for why I don't do these things, and its not that I'm not concerned. To be completely honest I suppose if, (and that's a big if), i'm actually watching t.v. there is usually something else on that attracts my attention more. Ironically, and probably pathetically its something like The Real World on MTV. As far as reading the newspaper,well, I just don't. We don't have it delivered because for us it would be a waste of money and just something else to put into the recycling bin. Honestly, I would only truly appreciate the Sunday paper because of the adds and coupons inside of it.

So, when I heard about all of the flooding around us I was totally oblivious. Naturally. That same night however, I did turn on the news and I learned that our area was expected to flood soon, and worse than it ever has before. I was interested then. I remember the last BIG flood in our area. I was around 13 years old then. It was crazy! I remember that people were swimming in the flood water. Then later hearing about how those same people were actually swimming in sewage because the sewers were also flooded. Businesses were shut down because they were under water and of course many of the streets were blocked off. Looking back on it now it was actually quite sad, people lost a lot because of what at the time I thought was cool.

While I was watching the news I thought that this would be something that the girls would like to see. Its different to a child. Things like this, things that are tragic in the eyes of adults can be amazing and almost fun to a child. At least that's the way I see it.If anything else, I was curious.

However, when we got down to the river tonight we did not see any flooding. We did however notice that the water was much higher. That didn't make any difference to the girls. To them it still looked like the same old, dirty watered Mississippi river. There would have to be water in the parking lot, at the very least, to make any impact on their views of what a flood looks like.
My favorite part of what the girls and I have named "Our River Walk" besides being outside, on a walk, with my family, is the sunset. Or sun rise. That would be, I actually got up that early, and again... that's a very big if. My favorite thing is when the sun meets the horizon. The sky seems to get warmer in its colors. Almost like its setting the mood before everything turns black and the stars do dances through the night and into our dreams.

A perfect night for me would be to sit under a tree close to a river (minus the bugs), with my family, covered in my brown blanket(that's a whole other story)waiting for that exact moment when the day says hello to the night. This night was pretty close to just that.