Friday, September 16, 2011

The Thunder Rolled

Finally we got cool weather yesterday. It was such an abrupt change it felt like early spring all of a sudden, not fall, spring. The wind was almost chilly. We went to the garden center of my choice and bought some plants to help cheer our sun bleached/dead landscape vegetation. Mums, marigolds, ixora (bright orange flower), a blue one and another one and we had a good time. Everyone there was sort of quiet and subdued. It has been so hot for so long and yesterday was about 25 degrees cooler than it had been the day before.

And then...

And then this afternoon late...there were clouds and there was thunder and lightning and finally it rained and rained and rained. Well, only an inch where I live, but oh my it was a wonderful sound to hear the sound of rain and feel it splash up on the patio onto my leg and face and all parts in between. It was a soft slow rain and not a wild gully washer that runs off right away. If there hadn't been lightning I'd have gone out and danced in it...well, not so much danced as hobbled, but I'd have been in it.

They have been showing on the news large cracks in the ground that people could step into and break a leg. They are trying to fill the ones on baseball fields and soccer fields with dirt for now. Where we have a stone path from our backdoor to the driveway the stones have pulled apart more than 2 or 3 inches from the soil shrinking. Hopefully, that is behind us now.

When it first started to rain it didn't smell like rain. It smelled like dust for some reason...like that reason would have been over three months of dust without rain to wash it away. We have been on a strict watering schedule of 2 times per week, and still will be until lake levels refill. One of my daughters lives in Austin and it hasn't rained there since last October, nearly a year now.

Anyway, that is why I haven't been around the past day or so. We spent all afternoon out yesterday and believe me when it started to rain we were both outside grinning like possums.

5 comments:

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  2. That is delightful news. I do hope you get a bunch more so the parched, cracked earth can heal.
    There really needs to be a way to control weather so that one part of the oountry isn't sitting on the roofs of their homes to escape the water and the other part is trying not to fall into the cracks in the earth.

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  3. That is the truth about controlling the weather.

    Oh Yvonne,
    I'm so not ready for the change back to real time this year for some reason. I guess because it seems to be getting dark about the right time now. Oh well, I'll be whinging when we go back on daylight savings time, too.

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  4. When I was younger, we lived in town but our house had a corn field on two sides. When it began to rain mom could hear it coming as the drops began to pelt the corn and if she had anything on the clothes lines she rain out and tried to get it all down and in before the sound of the rain became a deafening roar. And it really smelled good to me too. I could smell it before it could hear it.

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  5. I am so happy you got rain! That is just wonderful. It is supposed to rain here today so it must be coming my way. So many Texans on my facebook page have kept me informed about how dry you all are. Be sure and get on my blog and comment for a chance to win one of my aprons a lady designed for me. It is always so good to hear from you. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and keep on doing that happy dance!

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