Mother Nature

Duck on the Guadalupe River, Louise Hays Park, Kerrville, TX

It rained all day yesterday. Steady. Nothing too heavy. I’ll check my rain gauge at first light. It’s likely to be close to two inches. Yesterday’s heavier rains fell west and south of here on the Guadalupe River watershed. Those rains came down fast and furious. This morning, just down the road about 30 miles in Spring Branch the river is running at 29 feet which is not the 37 feet they were forecasting, but it’s still plenty high.

Oddly enough I was just in Kerrville last week to see my doctor. After the appointment, I bought lunch and went to Louise Hays park to sit beside the river. I walked along its banks and took in the sights. I stood under the bridge where highway 16 crosses the river. Yesterday the water nearly reached the road above. Mother Nature is a powerful creature when she cuts loose which is why I try to pay attention when she talks, even when she has unpleasant things to say. 

And I think she was talking to us yesterday. During events like this I’m reminded of all those videos I see of people petting buffalo and elk and getting gored for the trouble. We fail to remember that rivers are wild things, and the hills and valleys that we love were cut by floods and big rains. We think the river’s pretty moments are forever moments, and we want to stand and live close to it. But when we do, it works for a while until it doesn’t because we almost always forget to look upriver and see the inevitable change coming right at us.