Storm Chasin'

After days of lupus ailments and tonsillitis, asthma-inducing high ozone levels, and hundred degree heat advisories, I had finally managed , after the third trip to Lowes for parts, to fix the weedeater to tackle the weeds in the garden paths. I am sure it has been noticed that this garden site has produced few garden pictures this year, mostly due to my shame of WEEDS! Well, I have digressed.

Thursday evening I finally was able to get out with the weedeater to clear and mulch the garden paths. There were some scattered storms moving through the area, but everything was supposed to miss us. I had kept the radar on the laptop in view most of the afternoon. Once my company work was done (I work at home two days a week), I lathered up with sunscreen and bug repellent, loaded up the tools I keep indoors and donned the hot weather gear. Out I went to conquer. There were some gray clouds and some thunder-booming to the north, but not to worry, nothing was supposed to come this far south for at least a couple hours. It was sweltering with heavy hot air but bearable with no sun. I spent some productive twenty minutes clearing paths and finding my little veggie beauties doing well and delighting that I could finally get to them. I got half-way through the garden patch when the air was getting full of moisture, the wind was kicking up, and the blue-gray booming clouds were definitely rolling closer.

Ok, I give. I put away the electric weedeater so I would not be electrocuted and decided to take a break, rehydrate, watch the weather. I decided we must have a storm brewing right over us and a quick romp indoors to check the weather was puzzling. Nothing was really showing on the radar. (And how much do we rely on all of our technical scientific data?) I went back out to start mulching paths. I decided the wind storm had gotten strong enough that working with the black fabric would be a problem. I decided to sit under my tree and watch the storm pass. A little rain would cool me down and I love a good summer storm. I heard the storm warning sirens go off and saw some lightning strike nearby. I am not an idiot so I moved to the porch. It would be a little safer but I could still stay out in the storm. The rain pelted and blew. It was like a hurricane force storm. I gave up and ran inside. To wrap up, the little storm that was not supposed to happen flooded the streets and left four inches of water standing in the garden paths. All of my staked plants, loaded with produce as they were, fell over and I have a lot of storm damage to clean up.

Moral of the story, be careful of storm chasing. You don't know who will really end up chasing whom.