Because the wash has been running continuously since around noon. It must have rained hard up on the plateau, through which run a couple of deep canyons that form the headwaters for the wash. It never rained hard here but it’s been almost continuous since a little after ten. I got most of the laundry in just as it started falling and it never let up for more than a few minutes. Then a little after noon came that surf noise that said our friendly neighborhood dry riverbed was dry no more, and it flowed bank-to-bank and fast. Usually it runs for an hour or less and then peters out. Today it never entirely stopped. Which means that short of a serious emergency, nobody’s going anywhere. Landlady’s chickens are on one side of a flowing river and I’m on the other, with no bridge between. It has happened before and will happen again, and doesn’t constitute an emergency; I always try to make sure the ladies are okay for at least two days’ food and water.
The boys didn’t agree about the ‘not an emergency’ part. They missed their afternoon Jeep ride, and they let me know their opinion of my gross mismanagement.
