Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Ask me about my storm front

It's been a stormy couple of days here at the hacienda. It's been rather warm for this time of year and I was wishing for rain so I wouldn't have to keep watering my seeds & newly planted plants.

*note to self: Duh! Be careful what you wish for.

Yesterday, I woke at 5. After spending the obligatory (ahem, cough cough 2 hours) catching up on the online world, I went outside to attempt to finish putting in the seeds for the garden before we take off for camp and abandon the garden to weeds. It was sort of cloudy, but the sun was coming out from the clouds occasionally. I did finish what I set out to do, namely getting the sunflower room put in and the 3 sisters planted.

Explanation: for those of you who've never heard of it, a sunflower room is a circle (well, mine's a rectangle) or whatever shape you want of sunflowers. As they grow, they make a sweet little room for little people. Well, of course, being me, I made mine pretty big because, hey, I could, and also, I have two rambunctious little people to play in there. Plus I thought it might be a fun place to knit in the summer. So that is those mammoth sunflowers interspersed with birdhouse gourds. Should be interesting if it works.

The other thing that I planted yesterday (in addition to piles of squash seeds) is a section of "3 sisters". Isn't that a sweet name? It's from the native peoples, who used to plant their corn, squash, and pole beans all together. The concept is that, as the corn grows taller, it provides natural poles for the beans and squash to climb. I'd never tried it and, seeing as I have the room this year, I thought it was time to take the plunge. I sure hope those things work out...it should be really cool if they do.

Ok, so I'd just gotten my tiller & seeds put away and told Friend Husband I was ready to give him a haircut when the sky turned dark and opened up. Literally. I mean, it poured. I was glad that the ground was getting a good soaking (and I hoped that it didn't wash away my little rows of seeds) and proceeded to give FH a goooood shearing. Poor guy! I guess that my mind was elsewhere because it was way short. And I thought I was using a longer guide than usual to avoid that. I consoled him with the thought that at least it would be grown out by the time he started teaching again. In July.

I tried to convince David to let me shave a big "D" on the back of his head but he was having no part of that. One day he'll let me have big fun with his head but yesterday was apparently not that day.

I spent the rest of the day attempting to get clothes together, do laundry, etc. I ended up with a splitting headache. I was just about to lie down for a while when Friend Michelle called. They were approaching our little burgh and it was time to meet them. FM is the mother of Beloved PenPal Bethany, who Abby loves with single-minded devotion. We had been planning this get-together for a while and it was planned for the nearby park. Not going to work in the thunderstorm, so we moved it to the McDonald's PlayPlace.

Oh. My. Word. I can't describe to you how much my head felt like coming right off my head and rolling out the door when I hit the wall of cacophony that reigned in there. FM offered me some ibuprofen and I told her I was going to get some caffeine in hopes that that would make the ibuprofen that I'd already taken work better. If not, I'd take her drugs. Fortunately, a lot of the noisier children left and my ibuprofen kicked in. We had a delightful time. If I were smart, I'd have processed the pictures to put up here but of course, I haven't. Maybe tonight.

While we were in the McDonald's, the sky turned dark again and the wind picked up. I found out this morning that we were indeed in the middle of a bad storm, right behind the gigantic plate glass windows of Mickey D's. Yay. Fortunately, I didn't know that then. The children played for quite some time but eventually it had to end, to much regret on the parts of the penpals.

Let's see, I'm losing my train of thought here. Oh, yes, storms. This morning I woke up to the wail of storm sirens. Now, while I listen heartily to those, Friend Husband does not. I listened to the radio to try and find out what was going on, to no avail, then turned to the internet. Apparently, we had a severe weather warning, a severe thunderstorm warning, and a tornado watch in effect. I got Rachel downstairs, grabbed my knitting bag for downstairs, and watched the weather. Then the power went out.

Needless to say, everything worked out or I wouldn't be here tippety-typing away. The sky is still rather nasty looking but so far no more storm sirens. And I've got to go vacuum now so that my position remains secure in the household. Heh. As if Friend Husband would fire me. Anyway, it has to be done, along with major laundry-folding so I guess I'll blaze. Have a happy, healthy day in the hand of the Lord!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like some of the storms we have had earlier this year!! Hey, I have been thinking about you a lot lately! Why? You ask!? Well, oldest dd is getting ready to go to camp with the church. All the way up to Indiana! I am kinda going crazy, thinking about her being gone and all. How did you do it when your dd went to the grandparents???

Anonymous said...

She is heading up to Marion, IN. For a whole week, I tell you!!! Then to top it off, DD#2 will be in theater camp all week, all day!!! I will be left at home with 4 stinky boys!
I have been praying so hard already. I know I need to get used to them not being around so much as they get older, but man, this is hard!!!

Lori said...

I cracked up when I read about you trying to convince Dave to let you buzz a "D" in the back of his head, and continued to chuckle as I read...until I got to the part about your headache, of course. You know I *sympathize*. I'm glad the Ibuprofen kicked in. Mackie D's "PayPace" (as DS4 used to call it) is about the worst place to be with a bad headache. And as you pointed out, about the worst place to be during a storm...I'm thankful you all survived.
-TOL.
-TOL.