Rain

I love Sandra Boynton's song "End of a Summer Storm" from her Frog Trouble album. I also like William Joseph's song, "Sanding the Storm." Both of these songs just invoke a good rain storm, with or without thunder and lightning. The drive in to work today was a persistent rain, not a drizzle or a downpour, just a stead rain with dark clouds and somewhat foggy conditions. A wonderful day. It will probably break before noon, but it reminded me of a dark and stormy night my freshman year of college.

I had a night class (GEOG 1000) on Tuesdays. I actually enjoyed the class, which made it easier to go. The professor was good and I liked the subject material. My dorm was a good twenty minute walk from the rest of campus, but I had no problems with it. I enjoy walking, day or night, sun or snow, doesn't matter. It had been chilly so I had worn a coat to class in preparation of my walk home. When I got out of class it was a night a black as pitch. The rain was falling heavily - although I wouldn't call it a downpour. The clouds were low and inky. There was no wind to move them. It seemed that light was being sucked out of the very air. I remember walking to the windows in the lobby of the Biology - Natural Resources building (where our class was) and looking out at the blackness that was the night. I then stuffed my coat in my backpack, took off my shoes and socks, and rolled up my pant legs. With nothing other than my t-shirt and jeans and carrying my shoes I set off for home. It was warm - because rain will actually heat the air, a fact I learned in that very class - and no one was around. My feet were tender I don't normally like to go barefoot, but I picked my way home, in the rain. And I enjoyed every minute of it. I have a distinct memory of following the lines of tar in the patched parking lot. I don't remember seeing anyone. I'm sure it's because no one else was as stupid as me. When I got home I took a hot shower and changed into sweats and relaxed. I haven't done anything like that since, but I often think fondly on that dark and stormy night, carrying my shoes, and enjoying the rain.

Out in the snow

Today Kanga asked if we could go out and build a snow man. It's been a couple of days since we had fresh snow and even then it was more powdery than anything else, so I was a little skeptical. But trying to be a good dad I suited up and joined her. As soon as I got out there I was impressed that the day before she and Tigger had used an old beach pail to make Snow-henge.

They packed the snow into the pail and then flipped it over to make this quartet of what Kanga called "snow castles." When I got out there she was pouring water on them "to help them stay longer." We got started on a snowman as soon as she was done.

According to Kanga, the way you build a snowman is to make a big base, then a round belly, and then put the head on top. Then you add a hat, scarf, and other things to decorate it. We used her little snow shovel to pile up a decent sized cone of snow. It was crusty enough that I could cut blocks from it but we somehow got it to pack together. After a while she said it was time to work on the body, so I started to make a ball to put on the cone. There was no way to roll it, but, again, we managed to get the snow to stick together enough that it held when I picked it up. She helped me cement it on with more snow and then we made the head by packing the bucket really full of snow and plopping it on top. The hat hides the flat top, and it doesn't look too bad.

We used old pears that had shriveled to the size of marbles for the eyes and our neighbor's tree had a branch break that gave us the arms. The two other things on it's face are seashells that have been hanging around from the last owners. Originally, Kanga was going to use them for the mouth, but when it was clear there was no good way to do that she went with using them for rosy cheeks. So there you have it, the Kanga approved way of building a snowman. I'm glad that this old dog can learn new tricks. 

Wind storms

The whole latter part of this past week was dominated by windstorms. My parents (40 miles south of us) had gusts reading upwards of 59 mph. We were told to expect gust between 40 and 60 mph. It certainly made the drives into and from work interesting and I was glad that I wasn't driving my minivan. At times it was almost exciting how strong the wind would blow against you.

I had to go over to the church for cub scouts on Thursday and the wind was up. I opened the door to the building and it blew out of my hands and almost smashed against the wall. Closing it was a bit of a chore as well. I joked with the other leaders that came that this was the fastest I had ever gotten to the church. All I did was walk outside and open my coat and it blew me right there. When none of the boys showed up I figured I better send out a search and rescue as I was sure they had blown away.

We were lucky that the storm didn't cause more damage than it did. With that said it did blow down our basketball standard. My father-in-law recently lost his standard (to it being hit by a camper trailer) and so I already know how to fig it. But that will have to wait till warmer weather (and tools. and cement). I still say were were lucky that my neighbor's trees didn't come down on our fence or house. And we didn't lose power once during the storm. A couple of years ago my parents lost power for 27 hours after a wind storm, not to mention a section of fence. We did alright for ourselves.

The worst part of the storm was the first night the wind blew. It turns out we have a loose window in our bedroom. When the wind blew across it it hummed at the same harmonics that our kids tend to make when they're tired and not quite able to talk. It kept Angel up for most of the night. It bothered me some, but not as much as her. We got that taken care of before we went to bed again.

We're glad the storms are over and are looking forward to Thanksgiving this week. It should be busy but very satisfying. Eating and family are like that. But not eating family. That is considered cannibalism and is frown upon in most societies.