Stuff

Nothing like returning from grocery-shopping and finding your driveway blocked by a big truck.  It wasn't a freight truck (and I hadn't ordered anything requiring one lately).  So I pulled the car off the road onto my lawn, put on my best smile, and asked what was up.  There was a large firehose in one storm drain..

Sorry, I didn't take pictures.  Which didn't matter, because there was nothing visible going on.  Apparently, the storm drain clearing crew reported that one was half-filled with gravel and a specialized equipment crew does that.  And I'm not criticizing.  A lot of equipment only has a few experienced operators locally.  The guy (I've never seen a woman among these crews) who can delicately manage a 1/2 tin bucket to scrape debris off a storm grate is NOT the same as the guy who can manuver a drone through a pipe to find a blockage, etc.

Anyway, they were there to flush the foot of gravel out of one storm drain to the other 90' away and from there to the outlet under the street.  They suggested I move my car since the spray was fierce and some gravel would come out.  I had raw meat in the car, so I demanded they let me get it into the refrigerator (they did) and I moved to car way up on the lawn (which they said was safe - and was).

When they put on their helmets and goggles, I decided the best place to be was in the house!  They let loose the firehose.  It wasn't Old Faithful, but it WAS pretty impressive.  I think their eqipment could have watered my entire lawn an inch deep in about 5 minutes.

When the finally left, I went out and looked, the major storm drain was completely empty of gravel, the secondary one was nearly empty, and all the gravel was washed through the pipe under the street.  I'm not sure how my neighbor there feels about it.  He has more gravel in the easement leading to the swamp than before. 

Nothing really special, but it IS a finale to the 6" of rain in 4 hours from about a month ago Monday...