The Rains Cometh

I woke a few times during the night after hearing thunder and seeing flashes of lightning. I woke for good just after 5:30am. I was very happy to hear and see rain. While beginning my exercise routine I turned on the weather radar to see what we were getting. Wow! I was surprised with the strength & size of the storms. It didn’t look like it would let up anytime soon. It was then that I began to worry and wonder about my run even though I still hadn’t yet walked Ykraps. I went ahead and walked him in the rain storm. However, I kept it as brief as possible. Much to my liking, there appeared to be a semi-break in the red/orange coming our way. I hoped to time my run accordingly. Minutes later I could hear the thunder moving away from us, so I quickly readied and left for my run. Not only had the lightning stopped, but the rain lightened too. I was very fortunate (blessed). Just as I expected! Even at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will share how my hamstring felt. It was still a little stiff at the outset, but it loosened nicely about a half mile or so into the run. I finished strong. After my run I got busy making food. Mindy didn’t eat Tuesday’s leftover omelet, so I warmed it up. Happily, Mindy prepped my afternoon salad and nuts the night before. All I had to do was compile my fruit medley. Very nice! I really wanted to photo my one-time bloom roses this morning as the clock’s ticking on their beautiful floral display, but because of the rain I decided to hold off until tomorrow. After breakfast I headed up for a shower. Bella was up and excited about the prospect of going to Grandma Sharon’s for the day. That’s because Mindy was heading into school to have lunch with her students, this being the final day of classes. By the time that I returned downstairs the sky had darkened considerably. The other side of that break in the storm was moving in. In fact, it started raining hard again! Call me a wishful thinker, or a guy that wants his cake and to eat it too, but I went to great pains to transfer my golf clubs from the BM’er to the Trooper since this was golf league day. Based on my personal assessment of the regional radar, we stood a good chance of the rain being out here by mid-afternoon. I also toted in all of my Home Depot purchases from the day prior. I also cut up and placed the TV stand boxes at the curb hoping that bulk pick-up would get them even though I failed to schedule such a pick-up. I knew that they’d be in the neighborhood, however, after spotting a house just down the road with a large batch of bulk pick-up items at their curb. I went back inside to wish Mindy and the kids well. During that time, it began raining even harder. I stood in the garage waiting for it to let up to avoid getting soaked entering the Trooper. I had to wait about ten minutes. If nothing else, I could now rest easily knowing that we got the rain that we sorely needed. Last year this time, we couldn’t buy rain. Last spring was so dry that the grass never even got off to a good start, and then we had an extremely dry June to boot. Given my druthers, we’ll get an inch of rain every week and it’ll happen across two occurrences during the over night hours. I don’t ask for much! Work was busy and went fast. Staff meeting days always do. It was 1pm before I could bat an eye. By then the sky started showing signs of brightening just as I had hoped. Around 2:30pm I sent Bob I an email inquiring about golf. He replied, but wasn’t as optimistic about our chances of play given the extreme amounts of rain fall. Plus, as Bob mentioned, Westchester gets flooded easily. I was only slightly disappointed. I could use the time to catch up on a few other tasks. I let Mindy know that I wouldn’t be golfing. She let me know that she was feeling rough after going into school. She stopped at her mom’s and took a 2 hour nap. When I arrived home the kids were off playing and Mindy was lying on the sofa. We already discussed dinner. We declared it a fin for yourself night. Those don’t occur much at our house. I was cool with it. On my way home I phoned my Mom but got her VM. Next, I phoned brother Tommy. I hadn’t talked with him in a long while. He said that he was just on his way to our house. He had to deliver some paperwork to a customer in Marysville so he figured he’d stop by our place on his way up. I shared that with Mindy. She was fine with Tommy and Wally stopping by. I wasn’t so sure given her condition. Tommy arrived while I was prepping the following day’s coffee and loading my dirty lunch dishes into the dishwasher. We hadn’t seen Wally in a long while. Of course he’s walking and attempting to talk now. If correct, he’s only 15 months old. They didn’t stay that long. He might meet us Friday night at Barley’s. After Tommy left I warmed my leftover CBC quesadilla. It was still tasty. Mindy helped the kids with bowls of cereal – their request. Truth be told, I was feeling a bit anxious. Not entirely sure why. I didn’t feel up to tackling any projects. But reflecting back, I haven’t taken a night to simply rest in quite a while. I deserved a night of rest. The only semi-productive thing I did was update my blog and tuck in the kids. Mindy headed to bed shortly after the kids. I joined her around 9:30pm.