About yesterday's flood warning

At 5:15 Sunday morning my weather radio went off. I tried to press the snooze button on my alarm clock a couple times before it registered that the prerecorded automated voice was not the morning DJ...and it was Sunday. A flash flood warning had been issued for my area of the county. Great. Since the flood of 2010, I don't scoff at warnings. This was serious. I had to get out of bed and check on the status of the creek that runs through my back yard.

As soon as the alert sounded my dog freaked out and tried to hide from the squawking noise. That is more difficult for her these days because she's blind and can no longer find her best hiding places. She ran into my closet door, the bedroom door, the wall, my dresser. Sadly, I wasn't in much better shape. I'm not blind, but six hours prior to the warning being issued I took 5mg of Ambien because I couldn't sleep. I sat on the edge of my bed and tried to steady myself. I ran into the bathroom door, nearly fell off the toilet, tripped as I was putting on my shoes and then bounced off the walls as I tottered down the hall in search of my rain coat and a flashlight.

There's a reason for the warning label on Ambien. You need to make sure that you don't try to do anything (except sleep) for at least 7 hours after taking it. That includes slogging through a muddy back yard wearing pajamas and a raincoat while clutching a flashlight and trying to stay upright. This is precisely why I wear pajamas when I take Ambien. I'm scared that I'll be found running amok in my altogether, which brings to mind another thought. Some people have reported memory loss while taking Ambien. How do they know?

By midday the creek crested at about halfway into my yard. No damage except for a lot of branches and debris.

My creek (the trees should not be surrounded by muddy water)

My fun mud boots