Me either. First time (I think). Perhaps it is because we have had a bit more summer rains than normal or because I put a liberal amount of Osmacote around them all in March and that fertilizer has had time to be taken up by their roots.

Yup, that could be it. We had a very early warm-up, and a very wet spring combined with this latest round of a ton of rain in the last few weeks.

Are we still keeping our heads above water? The noon news was nothing but weather. There are so many major intersections closed and even the ramp at Westshore and I-275 is closed! I think all of South Tampa is underwater according to the news and my Facebook friends. I had to carry an umbrella to go pick caterpillar food this morning. And my shoes were getting stuck in the muck that used to be our lawn. The paper said we should return to our normal summertime pattern as early as tomorrow so we'll only have a 50-60% chance of rain every afternoon.

It's only misted here today several times but the air is saturated with moisture to the point that everything looks sort of foggy. They still predict doom & gloom but it has yet to hit. It was the same basic story yesterday but we did accumulate 1/4" yesterday. Frankly we've had ENOUGH rain and MORE than ENOUGH humidity. I do wish things would get back to our normal summer but I have little hope of that happening.

See how bright & cheerful I am today?

Ann, the news has been preempting all the shows this afternoon to cover the weather. Some areas have had 7 inches of rain in the last 12 hours! Hillsborough County just announced on Facebook they are extending their sandbag giveaway until midnight tonight. Pinellas County sent a couple of buses to evacuate people from an RV Park. And they closed Lowry Park Zoo and Busch Gardens! The horror, the horror! Seriously, it's bad out there. High tide was around 3pm so Pasco County was asking everyone to be off the roads after then if they could. The news keeps showing footage of all these cars that are stranded because they drove into water without knowing how deep it was. One of those was a Postal Service van which my dad laughed at because he's a retired letter carrier. He said he'd hate to be that employee.

It got real cloudy here today and the wind has been pretty brisk but all we've had is sprinkles ... water levels are still below normal. I won't complain though cause we haven't had any tropical storms or hurricanes. Of course August and September is the time when tropical systems seem to begin to ramp up ...

The news people are saying thank goodness this isn't a tropical system but that people should be prepared for this kind of thing because of where we live. I also saw something I can't recall ever seeing before - on the seven day forecast they had 100% chance of rain for tomorrow. I don't remember seeing 100% before. Maybe I have, but that's pretty rare.

I hope my plants can tolerate all this rain. Our soil drains pretty fast but there is standing water in parts of the yard. I'm also a little worried about what this is going to do to the mold counts. Mold is one of my primary allergies so I try to be aware of it. Oh, and we found out we have a leak in the roof after I noticed a weird pattern on one of our walls. It's near the fireplace. Dad seems to be looking forward to fixing that.

Our daily newspaper shows local pollen levels and for the past few days it's listed the following:

Grass: High
Trees: High
Mold: High
Weeds: Moderate.

It sounds real bad around the Tampa area Melanie. I'm sorry to hear that. I will never understand though why people do not heed the warning not to drive in water b/c you just don't know how deep it is!!!! Seriously! WHY do they all think they can do it? I guess there will be quite a lot of damage from flooding. I hope your dad gets the roof fixed quickly.

I sure hope FL does not get a dreaded "H" this year. Talk about dumping gobs of water in a short period.

Lin, no wonder I've been taking so much Zyrtec! I should really buy stock in that company.

The seven day forecast now shows 40% chance for tomorrow. Mom was suspicious when it showed 100% because she said that was for today. I think they updated the days across the top before they updated the percentages. Oops! The news has had some really crazy pictures of the flooding. One tow truck driver had already towed eight people out of one development and was coming back for more. Catfish have also been spotted in the streets. They showed the exit ramp they closed on I-275 and I can see why. It was just a lake at the bottom! I can see how some people got stuck, though. On Facebook I saw a picture of a cop car that went into the water but you couldn't really tell where the road stopped and the water began. Plus, we're starting to see sinkholes popping up. It's going to be a mess for a while. I've seen where the Red Cross and a church have opened up shelters for people who had to evacuate. Animal Services is even offering to shelter peoples' pets if they can't take them with them which I thought was very nice. Always good to see the community help each other out.

I did have to laugh at the one news anchor we have who is new and admitted on air that he hasn't lived here long. He said he talked to people who had been here for generations who didn't remember it being this bad. As my dad said earlier today, "They don't remember Hurricane Elena." I do. My birthday got postponed to the next day! I also refused to believe the McDonald's (where my party was being held) would close so Mom took me with her to prove it. She was going there to make sure the invitees she couldn't reach by phone hadn't showed up. I knew things were serious when McDonald's was closed. I was turning six that year, FYI. It was Labor Day weekend 1985.

Yeah, copious amounts of rain is one thing. Hurricanes are on a completely different level.

LOL Melanie ... you are a youngun! I was 37 years old in 1985.

I didn't remember Hurricane Elena, probably because she didn't affect us here on the east coast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... but it seems 1985 was a busy season for Atlantic Hurricanes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I lived in Pascagoula, MS and the eye of Elena came over that city. Elena was a strange Hurricane and could not make up her mind where she wanted to come ashore. I think she laid off the FL coastline for a couple of days before backtracking and moving over the Mississippi coast. She couldn't compare with the likes of Camille or Katrina, but with 130 mph winds and with gusts to 160, she was bad enough.

I'm not even going to talk about the "H" word. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..................

Ohhhhhhhhhhh sinkholes are NOT good. Yikers!

We have it bad down here Ann. Such lightning and heavy, heavy rain. 60 mile an hour winds. Suppose to be really bad about 754....This is impressive.

gardenglory said:We have it bad down here Ann. Such lightning and heavy, heavy rain. 60 mile an hour winds. Suppose to be really bad about 754....This is impressive.

I'm watching it on radar Pam. It IS terribly wicked looking! I am also LISTENING to it all the way up here. The dog is getting upset even. My dh keeps asking if it isn't coming here.

Stay safe y'all!

Well, it finally stopped raining and I think everyone in my neighborhood got out and finally mowed their lawns. My Beautyberry berries are turning purple!

My Brugmansia is blooming again. I live on a cul-de-sac and I'm on the corner of the main road. All my neighbors get to drive by this beauty! I even had a lady stop last year and ask to have a cutting. She gave me a cutting of her Brugmansia in exchange.