I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Night Showers
When I was a child, my family built a fire pit surrounded by an octagon-shaped cement “patio” that had the names of each member of my family on it. It was cool. One night in mid-August some of the neighbors were invited over for a cookout and later we gathered around the fire. I finally went into the house about midnight, intending to go to bed but suddenly I heard shouts of “Oh, Wow!” “There’s a another one!” Curious, I ran outside to see what was going on. Everyone was pointing up at the meteorites raining from the night sky. It was a spectacular light show that sparked my interest in the stars. After that incident, I sent away for star charts and went outside whenever I learned that there would be eclipses, comets, or meteor showers.
EJ loves to watch the stars to, so through the years we have gone outside to watch stellar events. We have also always taken JJ out to enjoy them too. However, the light pollution in southern Michigan has grown and it’s been a long time since I have been able to see many stars.
But now we live in the north where the skies are dark and the stars are awesome. When EJ has days off, and when we aren’t busy, we sit on our patio, lean back in our chairs, and watch the stars as we talk together.
This week is the yearly Perseid meteor shower, the same meteor shower I saw years ago. EJ usually doesn’t get home from work until after I go to bed, but I have gone outside each evening to watch for meteorites. Last night I stayed up until after he got home. I’m determined to enjoy the show. One evening a bat flew low over my head so I went inside and got a hat. I do not dislike bats–I think they are interesting and beneficial–but I don’t want them flying low over my head and having a hat makes me feel less vulnerable. After seeing bats in our Enchanted Forest, I have googled the different types of bats we have in Michigan. I learned we have nine different types.
I can’t help but talk to God as I watch the beautiful night sky. In between thanking Him for moving us to a place where we can watch the stars, I have been telling Him how tired and stressed my family has been, and I have been asking Him to please bring people to help us finish moving, and to please sell our house quickly, and to please help us to be able to rest, recover, and renew our spirits.
And then EJ started having episodes of dizziness, numbness, and almost-fainting, which made me worried and increased my stress. I said to God this morning, “This isn’t want I had in mind. Maybe You misheard me. We need less stress, not more. We need rest, not more busyness added into our lives.” But then it occurred to me that because EJ is so stressed, we had to cancel our exhausting trip downstate this weekend, so that he (and we) could….rest. Oh.
Last weekend EJ and I laid tile in the chasms the rain had caused in our driveway. This morning EJ renewed his efforts to find someone to bring gravel for our driveway. He called a local company we found listed on the Internet, and then found out it was actually sort of an Angie’s List for construction-type companies. The woman on the phone recited a list of nearby gravel places and told EJ she could transfer his call to the one he chose. So he selected a gravel company, the woman transferred his call, and he talked to that person about delivering gravel. The person said he was in the area and could be at our place to look at the job in a few minutes. The man who showed up said he thought he was coming to get rid of a fallen tree (from last week’s storm), and he’s a tree company not a gravel company. Sometimes trying to find a business on the Internet feels like a comedy routine.
While EJ was trying to find gravel, I emailed the realtor. I explained that we couldn’t go downstate this weekend as planned because of EJ’s health and I didn’t know whether we should wait until we can finish moving the rest of the stuff or if we should just list the house. I asked her what she thought and she recommended we go ahead and list the house so we can (hopefully) sell it before summer is over. I replied that that sounded good. I’m praying, praying, praying that our house sells SOON! Having it gone will lift the physical, emotional, and financial drain on us.
After EJ went to work this afternoon, I mowed the lawn. This is only the second time this summer that I have mowed it. The weather has been dry–except for downpour or two–so the grass hasn’t grown fast. I really like the look of a freshly mowed lawn.
There were a few clouds today, but this evening the sky cleared so I went outside, sat in my chair, and watched for meteorites. I saw a few, including a very bright one that streaked across the sky. Then, suddenly, even though the sky was clear and filled with stars and meteorites, I began to see brilliant flashes lighting up the sky and hearing rumbles, as if a storm was moving in. But I was confused because I didn’t see any clouds and radar showed nothing. What could it be? Finally, I checked radar again that a rather intense storm had very suddenly popped up. Eventually I saw the clouds moving in above the trees and I watched as they ate up the stars. The meteor shower was finished for the night. We are now getting a spectacular house-shaking thunderstorm. I’m hoping it’s not as damaging as last week’s storm or that it causes our driveway to become impassable.
I Love To Go A Gardening 
Hope you get rid of that house. We had one listed for over a year then took a loss, well not really, we did end up with some money out of it, but at least the utility bills stopped and we didn’t have two mortgages. Get some rest, and hopefully things will get better.
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