Crazy Rain & Wind

Yesterday EJ finally had a day off…so we went grocery shopping. Since we had a slow-moving morning and didn’t leave the house until noon (without having eaten breakfast), we decided first to go to Denny’s for breakfast/lunch. EJ had a steak breakfast and I had the country-fried chicken dinner. We left JJ home sleeping. EJ and I always have fun shopping together so it’s usually less of a chore and more of a fun activity.

After our meal, we went to the farm market-ish store, which was just down the road a bit. Mostly we just went for the ambience. We love the splashes of color and textures of the exotic fruits and vegetables and flowers. We bought a few things, like two large jars of raw honey, some produce, peanuts, bird seed, and so on. Usually we get a free cup of coffee at the store’s coffee station, but we didn’t on this trip because we had had a pot of coffee at home and then several cups at Denny’s.

Denny’s and the farm market store were in the larger city. After we finished shopping there, we drove to another town to do our main shopping. We were going to finish up our shopping at yet another store in another town, but we were tired and the car was too full so we decided to drive home, unload the groceries, rest a bit, and then go to the third store later. We ended up just staying home. We will have to go to that store tomorrow or Wednesday to get the things we didn’t get at the other stores…like jugs of water.

As we were driving home, it began to lightly rain. We got the groceries all unloaded before it began to rain harder. It rained and rained and rained all night long. In fact, Accuweather radar showed that our whole state was completely covered in heavy rain. It was amazing.  I was beginning to think we’d have to build an ark. The rain was one reason we decided not to go to the third store yesterday.

Today was gray and rain-ish. Actually it was more damp than rainy. About mid-morning it began to get windy. The local meteorologists are saying that winds are approaching 50 mph. The wind got stronger and stronger through the morning until it howled loud enough to wake JJ. Our house is made of double brick walls so we rarely hear the wind howl. It was so windy that the poor little birds had to flap their winds hard just to keep from being blown away. And the very large fat squirrel had difficulty climbing the pole to reach the tray feeder–I don’t know if the pole was slippery from the rain or if the wind was causing him difficulty. I watched him repeatedly climb and then slide down the pole.  Finally he made it up and sat in the swinging pole feeder for quite some time, eating heartily of the seeds that hadn’t yet blown away.

EJ had to drive to work in this wind. He texted me when he reached work. He said that the drive was quite an adventure. I expected there will be many limbs and power lines down. I’m hoping we don’t lose power.

I didn’t take Danny for his walk today. I love walking in the wind, but not when it’s this strong. I didn’t want us to blow away or get hit by windblown branches or debris. Fortunately, I always make sure that we have plenty of firewood in the house so I don’t have to bring in any if the weather is bad like today.