Stop the World; I Wanna Get Off!

Gad, WHERE does the time go!  The fireweed has begun blooming and the old wive's tale says that when the top bloom opens (the blossoms open from the bottom up), we'll have our first frost!  Now, don't get my wrong:  right about now, a frost sounds pretty damn good!  BUT, the time can't being going by so quickly!!!  Aaaaagh, I have too much to do!

The lawn mower, which I was expecting to pick up yesterday, needed a part that won't be in until (sob!) next week!!  And, the yard is an absolute abomination.  As B said, rather seriously, when he was here on Saturday, "Oh, I thought you were letting it Go Back To Nature!"  Yup, that's what it looks like!  And, I have a friend coming to stay tomorrow night whom I haven't seen in YEARS and, of course, I'd like the place to look as good as possible for her . . . but I guess that ain't gonna happen.  I've also noticed that, with the hot & wet summer we've been having, the greenery is really starting to encroach on the house, particularly on the south side.  I need to start taking some of that down, cutting it back.  In my spare time.  (See Exhibit A, below.)  Raspberry bushes need to be trimmed around the solar panels, too, as they are beginning to shade the lower section.

Exhibit A:  The view, right now, from my seat at the dining room table.  Can't even tell there's a board walkway between the house and the trees, can you?!

I was awoken in the week hours this morning by a huge *BAM!*, and my first instinct was that a battery had exploded in the battery room of the garage.  But then I realized that we were having another of the extreme summertime storms, and it was a crack of thunder.  Besides, even an exploding battery, cushioned within the battery room inside the garage, would never have made so much noise!  Anyway, I padded downstairs after stepping on two dogs curled up against my side of the bed (Maisy is terrified of storms and she's passed that on to Tucker, although he has no idea WHY he's supposed to be afraid!).  I shut all the doors and windows that the rain was pelting through.  Then I collapsed back into bed.  I remember rolling over and opening my eyes once to see an absolutely YELLOW sky.  I'd never seen that before.  Scary-green, yes, but not yellow.  I made a quick mental scramble that included "if the garage has been struck by lightning and is on fire, would it cause the yellowing in the entire sky?"  Satisfying myself with "nope", I turned over and went back to sleep.  I finally got up when the rain, so strong it was driven through the 2" opening I'd left in the window at the head of the bed, was sprinkling my face even through the mosquito netting canopy.

Having slept through most of it, I didn't think we'd gotten much rain (unfortunately, the battery is dead in the weather station / rain gauge, and I need some brave soul to climb to the tippy-top of the house to replace it).  But, once I'd gotten my computer up and running, I found this on Facebook of town, taken this morning:

Yes, that *IS* a kayaker in the street.  Image taken by D. Simula.

 And this:

More of the streets and a parking lot.  Image taken by S.H. Photography.

And then postings began coming through the community eBulletin Board of road closures due to wash-outs!  I went outside to peek into a wheelbarrow I'd left in the front yard, and there was about 4" in it!  (Cumulative in its angled bottom, to be sure.)  Then I looked at the readings from the closest weather station (just 7 1/2 miles southeast of me), and they recorded 1.88".  Yup, another fast and furious storm, it was!  Now it's lovely and breezy and blue-skied out, but there's another system headed our way.  Bundle of Joy's mommy has her family visiting from Kansas, and they're hoping to have a beach cook-out tonight, but the weather will be the deciding factor.  We might all just be visiting in their tiny home.  :)

Okay, that's it for now.  Gotta get somethin' done around this dump!