It's raining again in North Carolina

©2015 Lydia Hinshaw

My first puzzle, 1,500 pieces

Only 750 pieces in this one

 SOUTHERN PINES, NC -- Our three weeks in North Carolina have been plagued by rain, for 12 days straight at one point.  This week, Tuesday through Friday were gorgeous, but today it's raining on us again.

 No complaints though.  Just a few miles south of here, thousands of folks have had their homes, businesses, cars and crops destroyed by floods.  The train we took to New York nearly a week ago hasn't run again since, as far as I can tell.  Tracks are washed out in South Carolina, and several bridges along I-95 have been damaged, requiring it to be closed.

 We leave for home in two days, and have no idea how many extra miles we will need to make the 500-mile trip. With parts of I-95 and hundreds of other roads closed to the south of here, we will have to take a more westward trajectory and be flexible.  We are studying maps and monitoring Internet coverage of the disaster.  And we are allowing two days to make the trip.

 It will be one last adventure in a summer that has taken us through heat waves, wildfires, drought and flood.

 My main accomplishments in more than two weeks here are pictured above.  Shortly after our arrival and the beginning of the rain, we bought a couple of jigsaw puzzles, which I've enjoyed since I used to spend summer weeks in my grandmother's house, the same one where we've been bunking.

 The puzzles are still fun, but they also remind me how much better my eyesight used to be when I was much younger.  The light that never seems to be right is not the light's fault.  And standing up to lean over and look at the far side of the puzzle is a major pain in the back.

 I finally finished the second puzzle today, but still find myself wandering to the sunroom to work on it some more.

 Instead, it is time to start packing.