Why I don't Miss Our Dock At The River

This is a graph showing how high the Kansas River is predicted to get in the next few days. The blue line is where it is at the current reading and the green dotted line is the prediction. The 10th highest crest EVER is 38 feet. In...like 1974. Highest ever is 61 in 1951 during the '51 floods that devastated Kansas City.



We used to row on the Kansas River as it flows through downtown Kansas City. Several years ago the constant river level began to drop and we are no longer able to row there year 'round. We've moved to a wonderful but occasionally windy lake about 10 miles to the west.

I have been listening to the rain all day today. Started about 7:30am. It's rained buckets. And buckets.

Used to be days like this I would worry...I'd have worried yesterday when the rain was forecast. Mike and I would send emails trying to get folks lined up to move the dock. Pull it in, pull it in and then...when the water starts to go down, we'd run down and try to push it out fast enough that it wouldn't get stuck on land.

And then we'd dig it out. The tons of river crap that had collected next to and often on top of the dock had to be cleared away and the dang thing had to be put back in the water.

Rain like this...2 weeks off the water. 1 week watching and feeling sick while the river roared by. Then another week cleaning it all up.

My Mom asked me yesterday, "Who takes care of your dock at the lake?".
Innocent enough. For the last 10 years she's been listening to me gripe and cry and curse. She knows.

My answer. "Well, no one. We show up. The dock is there. We walk out onto it, put our boats in the water, row, land, walk back across it and GO HOME."

No one takes care of the dock. It's a beautiful thing.