Got home later than expected last evening from a folk gathering in Connecticut. Wet weekend there, but no flooding. Knew our neck of the woods was in for it though. Rominy Jergens had heard that her office (Oyster River Real Estate) in Newmarket, NH was under water. The sump pump silted up. Her office was the hardest hit (as of Saturday) in the building. This flooding is worse than the flooding in '87(?) when I was the last car through Rte. 108 close to Oyster River RE before they closed the road. From Rte. 125 on the way home I saw that another advertiser (in my publication, the Real Estate Guide) in Epping -- Country Crossings -- is under water. I think that's th Lamprey River. Our house is near the top of a hill and any water coming down the hill or driveway and going into the cellar (Tom just got the furnace started and there's a couple inches of water dpown there) will flow right out the downhill cellar door. My major concern over the weekend was our roof.

Pete & Joanne from Essex, MA were getting phone calls from their kids on Saturday that the cellar was flooded and the house cut off, but they didn't seem too worried. They headed home -- as planned -- Sunday, but we haven't yet heard how they made out.

It was a long trip home -- especially around Lawrence & Haverhill, MA where exits were closed and traffic on 495 slowed way down -- partially curiosity factor. The Merrimac definitely seemed to take up a lot more space than it should -- mostly in people's yards, etc.

We picked up our diabetic cat Mortimer from the vet where he boarded over the weekend -- late, but they were still there. We had heard that Freeman Hall Road in Nottingham was closed and suspected it was the swampy area between Rte. 4 and Priest Rd. (our road), but it turned out to be the bridge coming the other way from Rte. 152. (But that wasn't a particular surprise.)

So...since there were no warning signs or anything on Rte. 152, we headed towards home which is just on the other side of beautiful downtown Nottingham. Went over the bridge on the curve by the brick house -- and the wild water of the North River was right up to the bridge and shooting out the (lower) rapids as if out of a huge fire hose. And what did we find further on? The other end of the North River was entirely over Rte. 152 and Flutter Street up in the center of Nottingham -- library on one side, town offices and police on the other. So turned around and went back five miles to Rte. 125 (over the iffy bridge again, breath held) then to Lee Traffic Circle and Rte. 4 west. And Freeman Hall Road was dry to Priest Road and closed, of course, for the bridge right after. The bridge must have gone early because there were concrete barriers in the road and cops, etc.

And home we found numerous phone messages, most urgently from my mother who KNEW we were in Connecticut over the weekend, but I think she called not that long before we got home.

So there's a damp spot (and a continuing drip) on the floor between the kitchen and living room but no visible damage anywhere. There were probably other leaks in the bathroom because the towels and bathtub are wet, but the rug on the floor wasn't.

Mortimer had a calmer stay at Camp Cat than he did the last time, but he barfed on the looooong roundabout way home.

Looks like I'll have to drive all over hell and gone to get to work tomorrow. The long three sides of a box instead of the direct route. And Tom decided before we got to Nottingham that he was going to take today as a flood day.

Jeri had a roundabout way home from our place, but I guess she went to work in Dover today. Most schools were closed, but our up the hill neighbor's daughter who goes to an Arts charter school in Dover had school today.

Linn