Rain, Rain, Go Away

Yesterday was a muggy, muggy day. I tried to reclaim a patch of ground for garden but gave up. I managed to dig out enough muddy ground to plant some spinach, carrots and radishes that should have been planted a month ago. I came into the sweltering house, showered and dressed in minimal clothing to monitor the impending storms.

Crab mowed the lawn, showered and took off on one of his little journeys. I started working on food (mmmm....pea salad), played Facebook Scrabble with H, tried to watch a stupid movie and waited for the shit to hit the fan and cool off the damn house.

It did hit pretty good. I got phone calls. Crab wasn't coming home right now because it was raining too hard. My mom heard the name of the non-existent "town" where Crab and I live on the television. Evidently, a tornado had been heading here.

Really? For once I wasn't nervously pacing from window to window. I was just looking forward to the cool down after the rain.

Then several more phone calls from the K Town bar coalition asking me to come uptown. They had no electricity in K Town and life would not be complete without me there. So I went.

The new neighbors saw a tornado skipping down the K Town blacktop on their way to town. It had been very close to my house. K Town had been hit by lightning, knocking out the electricity. Basements were getting wet. I heard a generator running a sump pump.

The bar was stuffy and dark so we stood on the street and enjoyed the rainbow, taking pictures with our cell phones.

In front of the bar, snapping pics with cell phones

Over the old elevator

Look! The rainbow ends at Crab and pj's. Alas, there was no pot of gold when we got home.

They said the rainbow ended at Crab's and pj's. It didn't.

It rained and boomed all night. The fields are full of ponds. Rain is in the forecast all week long. I'm hoping my mom has her usual bountiful garden because we are going to starve if we have to depend on mine.

The house is down to 74 degrees, though!

Sweet

My little brother (a loosely used term since he is only a year and a half younger than I am and we are both old) called me tonight. We rarely talk on the phone. We are not a chatty family. If we know the others are fine, we're fine. When one calls, worry ensues immediately because why else would they call?

It turned out that he called because he was watching the weather on t.v. and was worried that I did not know about the looming thunderstorm. Ha. I should be so nonchalant about the weather. I am not. I am paranoid and I live in tornado country.

Years ago I procured a weather radio which informs me of impending doom or possibly-sort-of-maybe impending doom. Sometimes the radio is just annoying as hell. It had already told me that the storm would hit me at 6:15 p.m and I had a couple of different radar screens in different tabs up on my computer (how can radar differ so much?). I knew I was in for it.

It was sweet of him to worry. I asked if he wanted me to call him back after I survived the 60 mph winds that were sure to hit. He told me it wasn't necessary, he would see it on the news. Sweet.

The red eye of the storm was aimed right at me and then.... it went somewhere else. There was a short burst of not 60 mph wind and a little rain and then it was quiet again. It is always a little disappointing when the radio and radar get you all stirred up for a big disaster and all you get is a little fart.

Here is the radar after the fart:

Weather map, I am at the X

I went outside and here was the view to the terrible northeast:

Deep blue sky to the north and east.

And here is the inevitable rainbow:

Rainbow to the south and east

Sweet.