Another Rainy Day...

Sure am glad we went to Cooperstown yesterday! Today has been grey and overcast with intermittent bouts of rain. As we listened to the weather forecasts this afternoon, we realized that we may get a lot more rain yet tonight. The weatherman actually said that New York is behind as far as rainfall goes this year, but you sure wouldn't know it going by how saturated the ground is. Even a station wagon driving across the grassy area this afternoon left some pretty good ruts in the grass.

Our thermometer says the humidity is 60%, so the clothes I washed today aren't drying very fast. Usually I can have most of the laundry folded and put away by late afternoon. But it may be tomorrow morning before I can do that.

I spent a few hours today putting together some birthday cards and an anniversary card for our oldest daughter and her husband. Our friends Leslie and Bill introduced us to Send Out Cards, which are a blessing for folks on the road like us. You can either use some of their standard templates -- birthday, sympathy, anniversary, etc. -- or use your own pictures and make your own cards or postcards. The real neat thing about it is that they make up the card, print it, put a stamp on it and mail it! We've had fun using some of my pictures as postcards.

The other thing I really like is always having access to the RIGHT card, especially sympathy and get well cards without having to go shopping. I've always kept a box of cards on hand, but never seemed to have what I needed or enough. Then it usually meant a trip to find a post office as well.

I bought some yarn while we were in Cooperstown yesterday, so today I started knitting a scarf. I wanted something fairly easy that wouldn't require too much thinking. But, as usual, I picked out a pattern that requires attention! It's been a while since I've done any knitting, so it took me a bit to get the pattern figured out. I only had to rip out my start once, so it's not been too bad.

From Drizzle to Downpour!

I had talked yesterday about the way we had light drizzles off and on all day. Last night, it changed into a major thunderstorm.  We had lightning and thunder and and then it started to POUR! It came down in buckets -- and kept it up all night!  The ditch in the back of the RV park is running this morning, but the streets are dry. You'd never know how wet it had been during the night. We heard on the Weather Channel today that there had been tornadoes south and east of where we are...

It didn't rain anymore during the day today, but it was overcast all day. We had some very interesting clouds this afternoon.  They almost looked fake --

On the other side of the park the clouds looked relatively normal --

The whole southeast coast of the US is under a storm watch this evening, with predictions that the line of storms will move north towards the Carolinas and out to sea. As we watched the Weather Channel, we could also see the snow that is moving into and through eastern Washington. I think I'd rather have the thunderstorms -- but without the tornadoes!

We had a quiet day today. We spent some time over at Juni and Tom's this evening getting our doggy fix. Tica and Izzie are so much fun, partly because they are so glad to have company. Izzie wags her tail so hard you'd think it was going to fall off.

Rainy and Cool

It rained off and on during the night, but not an awful lot. Forry's rain guage says we got a whole .128 of an inch. Today we had one more shower, but it didn't last very long. It would be nice to get a nice 1/2 inch or so of rain. But we always have to remind ourselves that this is a desert with 7-9 inches a year of average rainfall.

It was cool enough today that I put on my velour pants and top and even have my slippers on -- quite a change from shorts and sandals.

I've spent most of the day with my nose in my Kindle. I've been reading a new (to me anyway) series by Karen Marie Moning, set in Ireland.

Weird Weather

It's interesting to listen to the weather forecasts and predictions as the broadcasters try to make sense out of what is happening. One day we're having record heat waves; then a cold front; they say we're back to normal; then it's very hot again; then it's thunderstorms possible. Nine times out of ten, they're not right or they're a day or two off with their predictions. When we used to fly, there was a saying among pilots that "they send the weather guys to the Pacific Northwest to teach them humility..."

It did rain during the night sometime and Son Sean says it's been raining in Spokane most of the day today. At least, Jeff's newly planted winter wheat seems to be up far enough that the rain shouldn't crust it over. It's so pretty to see the wisps of green peaking up over the tops of the furrows.

I spent some time today writing up the obituary I gave at my friend Phyllis' Memorial Service for our church newsletter, The Beacon. I had basically used the one the family wrote for the newspapers, but I had adlibed a bit. Bill, the editor, had asked if I would send him my version. I also wrote up a bit about family doings in anticipation of next Tuesday's deadline.

I got an email last evening with the results of yesterday's CT scan. It sounds like my primary care doctor may be able to get a note off to the surgeon giving him the go-ahead for my back surgery. We'd like to get it scheduled and done as soon as possible so that we don't have to remain in this north country when it starts to get cold!

Lightning and Thunder and RAIN!

What a night! We started seeing lightning over to the west about 8 PM and it just kept coming! It was a horrendous lightning show lots of cloud to cloud strikes as well as huge strikes to the ground. By ten PM it was all around us, we could see lightning on all sides. We did drive up on top of the hill to take a look after we smelled smoke. We didn't see any fires from there, but it was amazing how the countryside was lit up as bright as day after the flashes. Evidently there were lots of small fires, but the rain that followed put most of them out. However, down by Soap Lake and in Grant County they have four pretty good sized lightning strike fires burning today.

We had a couple of pretty good rain showers during the storms -- enough to get the ground wet. We're only hoping that there wasn't enough to crust the ground over Jeff's newly seeded wheat...

Today was a tedious long day. A drain had gotten plugged in the ice maker on the freezer and we had a river of ice flowing down the back and side of it. This morning Forry brought in a couple of coolers and we emptied both the freezer and the refrigerator into them and covered them with blankets while we attempted to defrost all of the ice river in the freezer. Even occasionally using the hair dryer, it took all day to get it thawed out.

But at least now the refrigerator and the freezer are clean -- it's amazing how much room there is in both of them!

A Visit From My Brother...

We had a nice surprise this afternoon when my Brother Pat stopped by for a short visit. I almost missed him as I was almost on my way over to Diane's for water aerobics. If I hadn't been running a bit late, I would have missed him entirely! Pat had been checking some fields in the area, so stopped by for a visit and a cold drink. It was really good to see him -- and not just because I have the handsomest brother ever! Pat has a birthday coming up on Thursday, but he doesn't look old enough to be a grandpa, even though he has one grandbaby now and one on the way.

After I got back from Diane's (where we had a really good workout), we headed for Spokane to pick up medications from the Group Health pharmacy that we had run out of -- and didn't have time to wait for them in the mail before we left for Sister Sherry's tomorrow.

We got caught in a couple of heavy rain showers while we were in Spokane. Thankfully I had my purple umbrella in the car! Since it was almost six, we decided to go to Wild Sage for dinner. I had a cup of braised tomato soup that was delicious. Forry decided to have the halibut that was their special tonight while I had the duck breast. It was served with risotto covered with a warm spinach, bacon and pine nut salad. Absolutely scrumtious! Forry's fish was served with finger potato salad. We decided to split a piece of coconut cream cake for dessert. It was served with a little bowl of whipped cream floating on a lake of pureed passion fruit. The tart puree was a great accompaniment and contrast to the sweet coconut mousse-filled cake. The guys at the table next to us commented that it was the prettiest presentation that they had ever seen.

PS Got a phone call from Daughter Mary Mae this afternoon saying my Kindle had arrived! Now I have to figure out when I'm going to get to her house to pick it up...

Million Dollar Rain

My Dad always said that any rain at all in June was worth a million dollars in increased wheat production -- I hope that there's been enough of these thunder showers to make that an accurate forecast! The temperature is a good 25 degrees cooler today than it was just a couple of days ago. We've had intermittent sprinkles with an occasional good shower since last night. Yesterday we had just gotten enough to make big dust splotches on all the windows, but today you could actually call it rain a couple of times. Oh, the joy of living in a desert -- our ranch averages 7-9 inches of rainfall a year!

Today was a bit better of a day although my stomach is still a bit queasy, especially this morning. I've not done much today but a couple of loads of laundry and read. I've been reading the Twilight series (to catch up with my granddaughters!), finished those four and Danielle Steel's Impossible.