The End of the Beginning

Last night, Johnson City, NY had its traditional Labor Day fireworks, to celebrate the end of its annual Field Days.  Ironic in a way, as two years ago, Johnson City voted on whether to dissolve (it didn't.).  Last year, right after Field Days, the floods came to the site of the Field Days and our entire area.  We lived through it and, in a way, we had a new beginning.

This week, on and off, I will commemorate the first anniversary of the floods our part of upstate NY (along with other parts of upstate NY, the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania and some other areas) experienced from Tropical Storm Lee.

I will still have my Wednesday Blooms tomorrow and it will be a nice one, I promise.  But as we approach the September 7-8-9-10-11 anniversary of "The Flood" (as it is called here, without explanation) and its immediate aftermath, and its personal impact on me and my family, I may delay or reschedule several weekly features.  It is time to look back one last time, and then continue forward.

In a way, this anniversary is a "deja vu all over again" situation, as we are now facing rains from the remnants of Hurricane Isaac.  It shouldn't be serious.  But, on September 4, 2011 we had no idea what was going to befall us here in the Binghamton, New York part of the Southern Tier of New York State.


Instead, the action was on the Gulf Coast, as Hurricane Lee made landfall on the Louisiana coast.

In the meantime, our part of upstate NY had been spared a direct hit from Tropical Storm Irene, itself a former hurricane, but we had  received a lot of rain.  Rivers and creeks were running high.  The ground was soggy and saturated.  Previous to that we had the wettest year on record. 

But that is in the past, and last night we celebrated with fireworks.