Weathered

As I was finishing writing my last post (Chick-apades), dark clouds moved in, we heard a few rumbles of thunder, and a strong wind caused the trees to sway wildly. We often get strong winds durings. We thought, “Finally! We are going to get some rain!” But after a few minutes, the clouds grew less dark, the thunder moved off, the wind died down, and the only rain we got was a few sprinkles. EJ said, “If I had paid for this, I would have wanted my money back!”

Then we both got tornado warning alerts on our phones.

We always stay alert to the weather. We both are interested in weather, and EJ has family history of his grandmother and parents being in The Beecher Tornado back before they (his parents) were married. As I was growing up, there was a phone number we could call to get a weather report. I would call it every morning to see what clothes I should wear because Michigan’s weather is very changeable: Is it going to be cold or hot? (Do I wear sweatshirt/coat or t-shirt?) Is it going to start off chilly and then get hot? (If so, I dressed in layers so I could take off warm clothing as the temps rose.) Is it going to start off hot and then get chilly? (Bring a jacket.) Is it going to be sunny or rain? (Bring an umbrella?) Is it going to snow? My Mom often told me to take a sweater with me on warm Spring days, describing a time when a Spring day was so warm that kids went to school wearing shorts and sandals and while they were in class, a huge snowstorm hit and some were walking home through snowdrifts in sandals. “If you don’t need a sweater, you can take it off,” she’d say. “But you can’t put it on if you need it and don’t have it.” I’ve followed–and quoted–that advice throughout my life. I remember when EJ and I hadn’t been married long, he, his friend, and I attended an outdoor event. The weather that day was very humid with sweltering 90-degree temperatures–but in minutes it suddenly plunged 40 degrees. I was the only one who was warm because I had left a sweater in the car.

To this day, I plan my clothing and activities around the weather report. If one day is going to be very hot and the next day a bit cooler, I will plan to mow the lawn on the cooler day. I’m surprised when I hear of people not paying attention to the weather, especially if they live in areas that have frequent severe storms, such as tornadoes or hurricanes. I don’t think we get as many severe thunderstorms here in Northern Michigan as we did when we lived downstate, but they seem to do a lot of damage when we do get them.

Back to last Friday: When the tornado warning went off, we were confused because the weather was quite calm. I stayed in to finish eating my piece of homemade pizza while EJ went outside to look at the sky. Nothing.

What we didn’t learn until a few hours later was that there WAS a tornado that touched down in a town relatively close to us. It killed a couple of people and did a lot of damage. We occasionally go shopping at some of the businesses that were destroyed. I feel sorry for the people of that town. Michigan businesses suffered from the harsh lockdowns in 2020. Many businesses closed. For the town to survive the lockdowns and then have their businesses destroyed…seems intolerable. And just when the tourist season is beginning, which is when they do a lot of business!

We did get some rain later that day. It was a gentle rain.

Last night the temperatures dipped to 32 degrees–which is cold enough to snow. It didn’t snow, thankfully. We thought it was a little too cold to try to endure without heat so we reluctantly turned our furnace back on. We were concerned about our fruit trees and bushes, but they seemed to have survived ok. We live on a hill and there are gullies around us. EJ thinks that the cold air might sink into the gullies (cold air sinks) so that we are spared some of the frost/freezes. Today was pleasantly cool–just right for mowing the lawn for the first time this year. Tonight we have a frost warning with an expected low of 38 degrees.

Mama Raccoon visits us frequently–or rather our birdfeeders–but it’s usually at night when we are sleeping. We only know she’s been here because the tray feeder is tilted. Last night she arrived at twilight when it was light enough to see her, but probably too dark for photos–so I didn’t try to take photos. She kept us laughing because she hung upsidedown by one foot to one of the brackets that hold the feeders while she reach down to eat the seed. Then she moved so she gripped the post with her back legs while she grabbed the tray feeder with her front paws. We watched in astonishment as her back legs kept slipping inch by inch down the post while she kept grabbing the feeder–and finally she tumbled off the post. She spent a lot of time after that eating that seed that she had spilled on the ground. Oh, she was so funny.