Torrent

Today’s word from the dictionary was “torrent.”  Toowoomba seems to have been the place for torrent.  I remember pictures of the “inland tsunami.”  That was a torrent of water rushing down the street.
Merril and I were there once and experienced a torrent.  We were there to watch a few bands.  There was a culvert at the place near where the bands were performing.  It was as dry as a bone.  People walked freely across it.
Then it started raining.  We sat on a grassy slope to watch the bands.  But the rain was unrelenting.  We had not come prepared for rain.  Others nearby had a plastic covering over themselves.  They invited us to join them.  Four of us were huddled against the rain.  That was ok, but it did not stop the water from going down the slope.  Our heads were dry but not our tails.
Eventually we, along with others, had had enough.  The concert was cancelled.  It just happened to be Switchfoot which is our favourite band performing.  All we wanted to do was be dry.  We exited through a tent.  It looked like a disaster zone.  Water was everywhere. The night was abandoned.  It had become a dangerous place.
We along with everyone else were trapesing out.  The culvert was now a rushing torrent.  Anyone in there would have been instantly carried away by the water.  Everything had changed so quickly and unexpectedly.  Rain was not on the forecast.  It had been a beautiful evening.
Merril and I got back to where we were staying.  We looked up the BOM.  The rain had been one cloud over where we were.  There was no rain anywhere else.  But there was rain where we were.  Big mobs of it.
Like a place I used to own.  I was happily working on my computer and felt like a cup of tea (as you do).  I was surprised the kettle did not work.  I looked out the window and the road had become a torrent of water.  One time the lady next door had a rope stretched across the street so she could cross it, such was the volume of water.  My place no sooner flooded then the water disappeared and under the house needed hosing out.  My bosses comment?  “I didn’t know it rained last night.”
Even here there has been torrents.  It was soon after my operation and Merril was still working.  The rain was such that people were encouraged to get home while they could.  Merril was in her red Corella.  She knew it was time to find another way as she saw the water rising around her as she waited at a set of lights.
I was at home.  The walkway behind the house had become a stream.  Water here all heads to one corner.  I have since put a drain under the soil, so the water gets away easier.  It used to flood next door.
I have seen my share of torrents and it not something I look forward to.  Often we need the rain – just not all at once.