So.

 So.  Yesterday was an ordinary spring day in western Washington.

The boys are getting settled back into the groove.  Everyone is caught up on their school work.  The laundry is in a manageable state.  With the holiday weekend coming, my calendar is full-ish, but not terrifying.  And my parents picked up Naomi on Wednesday, to take her back down to my brother's place, near Seattle, so I'm enjoying the freedom of not having to be so vigilant all the livelong day.

The rain let up long enough for the grass to get (mostly) dry, so I sent the boys over to mow the last of the neighbors' lawns for this week.  Tate and Gunnar had finished their parts, but Wyatt was still there working on his when we heard the thunder.  Loud.  And close.  And again.  Wyatt had the good sense to leave the lawn unfinished, and stow the mower.  I heard the screen door bang behind him just as the downpour started.

And I sat here, thinking of the folks in Oklahoma, and thankful that - for us - thunderstorms are more entertainment than threat.  We don't get the tornadoes the midwest endures.  We don't get hurricanes, like the southeast.  Or blizzards, like the northeast.  Or crazy heat, like the southwest.

I didn't want to be smug, but I was feeling pretty thankful that we live in such a boring gentle place, you know?

Then I looked at the news.  (Photos shamelessly lifted from news sites.)

Yah.  That's the I-5 bridge over the Skagit River.  I couldn't tell you how many times I've driven over this bridge.  My parents were over it twice, taking the baby home.  (I-5 is The Interstate, around here.  Runs from Canada to San Diego.  The only N/S freeway west of the Cascade Mountains.)

Miraculously, no one was killed.  Three people in two vehicles went into the water and were rescued. There's a very cold and shivery looking guy on top of the little red car, a man standing in the pick-up, and I think his wife is out of sight, inside the cab.  She was hurt, but they kept her at the Skagit hospital so I'm guessing she isn't too seriously hurt.  (No slight to the local hospital, but if she was really bad off she'd have been airlifted to Seattle.)

Amazing.  I'm thanking God my parents weren't on the bridge at the wrong time, that it happened in daylight - making rescue easier, and that no one was killed.

The photo looks so calm, you can't tell how much current is pushing through there, with all the rain and snowmelt this time of year.  Or how very, very cold the water is.

So we give thanks.  It could have been so much worse.

Right now the biggest problem is going to be the Memorial Weekend traffic trying to get around that mess!