We had our first spring thunderstorm last night. It was a good one! It almost got to 90° this afternoon. Humid and very windy. “She’s blowin’ up a storm maties.” I picture Jack Aubrey checking the glass to see the barometric pressure dropping. “Reef the mains boys, it’s going to blow!”
Anyway I digress. At about five o’clock the front came in from the west, it got dark, rained a few drops and then cut loose. The rain was coming down in horizontal sheets and it sounded like there was a war going on. I can still hear the thunder, but the worst is past us now. Those kids next door I photographed in the tree a couple of weekends ago? They were up in the same tree in a lightning storm. I was afraid God and Darwin were going to get together to cull the stupid from the species. I’m not sure I could have handled boy children. They’re such kamakazis. I never did dumb stuff like that. No siree, I didn’t. Well maybe a few times. Maybe in cars. And a couple times in boats. But I think I can handle screaming matches and extreme sarcasm and PMS better than frequent trips to the orthopedic surgeon. (I’ve just totally jinxed Quinn’s upcoming soccer season….I see a compound fracture in the future) Yeah great now I have an albatross around my neck. It’s hell to be a reincarnate sea dog in the absolute middle of the country. At least I’m close to the Mississippi and I can slap down a weeks pay and buy a used 14 foot aluminum fishing boat with a 15 horse Evinrude and cruise all the way to the Gulf if I wanted to. I could.
excellent radar shot, ahh, though I surely miss hurricanes and the ocean the straightline midwestern storm front holds its wonders. Where better than from a tree? (maybe no crazier than surfing hurricane tidal surges)
Love those storms, but not in a tree. Drunks and little children.
y’know, I was looking at the radar last night (always check the weather before I go to bed) and saw that line of storms. I thought to myself, “damn, Bob must be having a time right now with those.”
Kids in trees during a storm??? WTF???
I can just see you crusing the Mississippi like a modern day Tom Sawyer.
hey now, i think the boy has been much easier to deal with than the daughter. but she spent so much time in dance that going to the chiropractor and doctors for this or that ailment got to be as much a part of the expense as dance itself. and my boy wouldn’t be so foolish as to go in a tree in a thunderstorm. the daughter on the other hand . . .
I love storms too. Until they remind me that I have yet to properly seal the place where a pipe shoots through my roof. The water creeps down the side of the pipe and drenches this one tile in my false ceiling. Also, I don’t know what’s worse: the rambunctiousness of a boy child, or the attitudes of a girl child. I think I’m gonna cry freedom like Braveheart when six years are up. Right, but then there are college bills. Right.
Hmmm – I think I would prefer older. Maybe not in the younger arm breaking stage though. Although boys can be just as melodramatic and girls just as reckless or stoic – older and younger. Never know. Then again, boys are usually out riding motorcycles and climbing mountains much more than girls later in life. Then again, I am buying my first motorcycle this summer (AND taking a riding class).
Rain is better than snow. Neither is good for girls on motorcycles. ; )
So I don’t think I’m old and wise enough to debate about the boy vs. girl thing. Although I must say, a house full of girls must be tough. I can’t say I’ve been up in a tree during a thunderstorm…maybe a hailstorm, but that’s different.
As for that boating expedition, lemme know once you decide go to. I’ve lived near the coast all my life; Oklahoma is my purgatory.
ps…I love the God & Darwin comment.
i dunno, man, if our girlchild climbed a tree in a lightning storm, i might just let her stay there…
I’m just going to adopt a 19 year old with a steady job and then tell him he’s old enough to help support my sorry ass.
It rained here last night too, was a nice change because I think Wyoming is about 60% of normal precipitation for the year on the 7th year of droughts. Go us. Thank God for green paint.
How is Patrick O’brien anyway?
Go to the gulf. You might need to gas up once or twice though.
We got the 90 degree temp. here, but not the thunderstorm. Drat. I like a good storm.
Girls can be pretty reckless too. When I was young me and my friend Linda liked to jump off the sundeck which was 12 feet off the ground. We also liked to run full blast down a very steep hill while trying to trip each other. Linda is still an adrenaline junky, but I’ve turned into a complete chicken.
Man, you’re speaking my language. Talk about a reincarnated sea dog, I left the Jersey shore after 25 years on the Atlantic Coast, spent the next ten on the waters of the Carribean including a stint as the Captain of a sunset cruise and another as Cheif Engineer on a 110′ Salvage ship, and now find myself sitting on the edge of Lake Michigan. How the hell did that happen? Yep, you guessed it, there was a woman involved.
Bah, it’s my girl who worries me. I just know she’s going to be trouble. My oldest boy is very passive. No troubles from him at all.
We here in Illinois got the heat too but no thunderstorms. Big hailstorm in Chicago’s south suburbs but nothing by me.