This past weekend we had our 33rd annual Howell family reunion.

Some of the folks are beginning to look old and have begun to put on a few pounds around the middle.

My nephew, Josh, was one of the ones that was able to hold his own in eating and weight. His is a senior in high school at Miller County this year and when the football season is over and he slows down on all the running and other exercise, he is going to blow 300 wide open. Even now I would hate to be the defender assigned to tackle him. For his size, he is totally fast, and I might leave him that way.

We all had a good time. We had barbecue rather than fried fish, which is a sin. Most of us need to be watching our diet, and fried fish is usually not on anyone’s diet. When it comes to sweets, Aunt Mildred’s chocolate cake is the first to go, disappear like it was never there. My cousins can put an eating on that cake. They learned it from their parents, because when they were alive they did the same thing.

My dad had a couple of brothers that would just divide the cake between them if they could divert attention away from that part of the table, and I have some cousins that are capable of doing the same. Aunt Mildred is my mother, and all the kinfolks thought we had that cake all the time. It was for special occasions and we didn’t get any.

While we were enjoying good food and fellowship those folks to our north were probably not enjoying the amount of rainfall they were getting. I was in midstate on Thursday night and they got quite a bit of rainfall as well as flooding. It rained so hard on Thursday night that I looked for a passing boat and animals two by two.

The next morning it was fine, but over the weekend the rains moved up to Atlanta and flooded a large area and caused loss of life. A number of folks had to be rescued from areas of rising water. Areas with lots of pavement and concrete can flood easily, so watch out. The water cannot soak in concrete like it can dirt while dirt can only hold so much.

We had better watch the rivers over the next few days.

The Flint River starts in Atlanta, so a lot of that water will flow down the Flint. The Hooch also comes from that area and it will also rise. Lake Lanier is on the Hooch and it will get nearly full. It has not seen a full pool since sometime in 2005.

Lake Seminole should get full without a hurricane, which seldom happens in the fall. The three state water wars should slow for a while.

As warm as it still is, the high water may cause fish to again travel upstream and fill the upper reaches of the smaller streams. Folks without boats can again catch plenty of fish to eat. I have seen it happen during September, so maybe it can still happen during the first part of October.

The local rains have helped the hunting. Archery season is in and you are much quieter in the woods than when the leaves are dry and cracking. The bad part of that is the deer are much quieter in the woods also, so it is more of a sight rather than a sound game. I talked with one hunter that had been every morning since the season started and hadn’t scored yet. But he said he was enjoying some nice cool mornings which is a part of it also.