It's a good thing she inherited her Meme's duck feet...

...poor baby's gonna need 'em.

(All the photos are several days old...the water's much higher now.)

Karsin standing in their driveway


My two babies normally live right alongside a river, too. Unfortunately, they're presently livin in the river. That would be the Mississippi. They live just outside of St. Charles, Missouri...more or less, across the river from Grafton, Illinois.

And most of the Mississippi, in case ya didn't know, is way beyond flood stage.

For the last week or so, they've had to park their car and truck up on the small, gravel road that leads to their house and walk in. For the last several days, they've had to don their chest waders to take that same walk. Luckily, their home is essentially three stories...the main living areas are on the second and third floors...the bottom level is mainly storage and a big-assed, concrete patio.



Now, most of you don't know my daughter. But lemme tell ya...she's a "princess".

The idea of her wearing chest waders...whilst pullin her daughter and all her accoutrements...and groceries...and whatever else needs hauled in...back and forth in a little dingy...through the waist-high flood water of the Mississippi...just to get back and forth from their home to their vehicles...well...

I just can't wrap my head around it.

The other day, she was tellin me about the first time they tried it when the water wasn't quite so deep. She got on her chest-waders...and Karsin put her's on sans suspenders because, for some reason, they neglected to include them in the box. They improvised...and used a bungee strap. (Can you say "Beverly Hillbillies?) They started in...with several of the neighbors watchin to make sure they made it ok...and both promptly fell down.

I gotta tell ya...I was hysterical by this time.

She said they looked like a coupla turtles on their backs..tryin to get up. And, of course, the chest waders got water in 'em. So now, they're tryin to walk...with a coupla gallons of coooold Mississippi River water sloshin around their butts.

At that point, a very kind...but also-hysterical...neighbor offered them the use of his dingy for Karsin, who views the whole thing like an adventure, bless her little heart. (She IS her Meme's granddaughter, after all.)

The view from the corner of their house


Their boat dock


'Course, Jules hasn't lost her princess-ness, entirely. "I'm gonna move!" "I can't take this shit anymore!" "Wahhh...waaahhh...waaahhhh!" Her 'significant other', though...that guy's got it goin on. "Ya gotta remember...ya don't live in a resort. Ya live along the damn river. Ya gotta take the good with the bad."

He's right. And she knows it. But princess-ness...well, it's a hard thing to recover from. She's workin on it.

And I'm proud of her.

New photos today...

Karsin in her dingy


The Princess in chest waders