Storm

One forgets from year to year how very violent the storms can become here during rainy season. We got a reminder last night when a ferocious rain, thunder, and lightning storm hit Sanur, swiftly flooding most of the houses on my street. Shutting the doors does not shut out the rain. It simply flows in under the doors. I ended up soaking six towels in an attempt to dam the flow. Crashing thunder shook the windows, reverberating like the blast of artillery while the lightning flashed from the barrels of the black clouds. And then the lights went out. Of course. The neighborhood WhatsApp line lit up as well. I don't have any candles! OMG! Flood! There's water running down my walls! For my own part, after placing the towels, I took refuge in my easy chair so as to avoid having to skate across the wet ceramic tiles of the floor--famously the most slippery thing ever invented by man. It was still raining when I went to bed, though less violently so, and I awoke this morning to a world that looked like one big soaked towel, drooping, sagging, dripping. The rain has stopped but the clouds remain, and so I am wondering how I am going to dry these towels before the next storm arrives. Happily, I don't do my own laundry at home any more. The maid takes it out. Otherwise, I would find myself not only with a pile of wet towels but with no clean clothing to wear for however long the sun decides to hide away.