Saturday, June 16, 2012

Flooding My Co-op Plans

Last week I bought non-homogenized milk from Cedar Summit Farm.  My plan on Thursday was to buy more, since I'm on the last half gallon bottle.

One thing that had concerned me, however, was the distance I had to travel to buy the milk.  While 22 miles isn't a long drive for many people, it's huge for me.  Since moving here, I've kept my driving down to a minimum, largely due to my location being so close to everything I need.  I even walk to the grocery store, although that's been put on hold until the store reopens under new ownership.

Regardless, this was a huge distance.  I worried about my ecological footprint.  I have to burn fossil fuels to get that far, after all.

I did some research.  It turns out that I can drive half of that distance and still buy Cedar Summit's milk!  There's a business that's only 11 miles away from me that stocks it!  Not only that, but it's a co-op!

What's a co-op?

For those of you that aren't familiar with the concept (to include me, up until a few months ago), a co-op is a member owned, member run business.  The members are local, and the business is run for their benefit.  Members vote on issues directly related to the business, get discounts on some purchases, and even get a check when a profit is made.  There's a lot more to it, but the basic gist is that it's locally run for the benefit of the community.

So my plan was to visit Just Food Co-op.

Plans, however, have this tendency of going wrong for me, and that's what happened this time.

See, we got a lot of rain.  Indeed, when I looked at a weather map, there was a line of bad weather throughout several states.  Flooding, flooding, flooding.  Rain was pouring down pretty hard, and streets were closed throughout the county.



That's my driveway.  I was very lucky.  First, my driveway is on a slope, so what you're seeing is a rush of water flowing down, rather than flooding.  Second, my entire street is on a decently steep hill (something I can't show in pictures, no matter how hard I try), so the water continued to flow away.

Low lying areas were the ones that got hit hard.  Many roads were impassable.  Even by Friday morning there were areas along rivers that were off limits.  Yes, I was lucky, indeed.

The problem for me, though, (aside from discovering a very leaky roof) was that I was unable to go to the co-op.  We were hit hard, but the town that the co-op is in was hit even harder.  My decision was to try to make my run to the co-op on Friday.

I know... I sound so selfish and unconcerned.  There's flooding all over the place, and here I am worrying about my milk supply.

People around here, though, seem to be unaffected by things like flooded streets.  They just continue with their lives, totally ignoring something like a newly formed lake smack in the middle of the road.  To me, this warrants attention.  I appear to be the oddball, however.

The weather in this area is so strange for me.  Thursday night I saw clouds zoom by at a rate that I found alarming.  The locals, however, are used to it.  Perhaps I, too, will get used to it someday.  Every region has its weather quirks, after all.  My old home had sandstorms that would probably panic someone from this side of the country, whereas they weren't the least bit concerning to me.  Heck, the sandstorms even helped clean my teeth if I was foolish enough to open my mouth!

It's all about what you're used to.

I wonder how long it's going to take for me to get used to all of this wet stuff falling from the sky?

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