When It Rains

Mother Nature PMS'd her way through the area tonight with lots of wind, thunder, lightning, lashing rain and tornadoes. So far, the news is still reporting spotting, but no confirmations of touchdowns.

Before it even blew in, the city set off the alarm sirens. And I'm talking not even a drop of rain yet. My mom called at the exact same time the siren started. And of course, the kids started freaking out, as well. Two kittens racing around, me trying to figure out exactly what was happening, while reassuring mom that I was fine. That was when the satellite figuratively ran for cover. No TV reception meant no live weather news. OK, losing that lifeline freaked me out a little bit because I couldn't watch every tick of the radar as the storm moved closer.

Time to take control. Made sure things were battened down outside, then took the laptop and headed into the bedroom with Jake and Izzy. Didn't know where Sam was, and as the storm was upon us, I couldn't head back outside to look for him. I tried to find some site with live weather feeds. No luck on any of our local television channel websites. You'd think they'd offer that privelege for public safety.

The storm whipped through quickly and within 45 minutes it was pretty quiet again. Jake and Izzy were sacked out asleep, and as "they" say, the animals know best. I figured since they were calm then the worst really was over.

I went outside to take a look around and saw my lemon tree had taken a tumble. It was still raining lightly, but I went to set it upright in order to protect the fruit and then saw the hammock and umbrella were knocked over. As I made my way across the river that was my yard at that point, I stepped in a mole hole and managed to lose my shoe.

I thought about leaving it there and going back to get it tomorrow because the rain was cold, but I decided to retrieve it anyway. Took a few tugs to get it out of the muck and by then both feet had sunk down into mole holes. Damned creature! Had to then pull the other shoe out of the mud.

Grabbed the hammock stand, set it upright, then picked up the umbrella to take back up on the patio. Other than a few limbs blown off the trees, that was pretty much the extent of my damage.

Now, where the heck was Sam? I still hadn't seen hide nor hair of him. I expected him to pop through the cat door, soaking wet and complaining loudly. Nope. I went through every room in the house calling for him, expecting to get a cranky meow. Again nope. Then I just yelled his name very loudly. No.

I sat down on the couch to get the latest on the weather now that the satellite had come out of hiding, looked down, and there he was beside me, silent as a wraith. And dry as a bone, which meant he had been in the house the entire time. Brat.

All's quiet now, and all three boys are napping. Guess it's all back to normal.