Preface: This blog post is about the weather. And given that there's no other point to this post, and I'm actually having an experience solely about weather and taking up your time to actually talk about it, you might need the reminder: I really am only 33 years old. With the exception of one person (who doesn't know who she is so I won't mention her name) I don't know anyone my age who talks about the weather. Weather seems to me to be a sort of generational topic of conversation. Or maybe it's simply because I'm on the beginning fringes of realizing that I've never really experienced weather. And now that I am, it's like super cool and important and blog worthy for me, when it's totally old news for everyone else. Like when I discovered that peanut butter and banana sandwiches are AMAZING in my late twenties and was raving about them to everyone only to meet the shoulder shrugging response, "You've never had one before?"
Annabelle had just gone to sleep for her afternoon nap, I had a glass of freshly made iced tea (knowing that it was autumn and wondering why isn't it warm outside?), a friendly little 63 page knitting advertisement magazine came in the mail and I was sitting in a chair in the living room perusing the goods they were peddling.
And then a bright flash of lightening lit up the living room followed one second later by the god-like boom of thunder that follows... loud enough that I couldn't tell if the house shook, or only my heart. A light drizzle turned into a downpour heavy enough to make me concerned about double checking the roof once it lets up- so I sat down here at the computer, realizing I hadn't checked the weather in a few weeks.
So I pull up our local weather report and sat, a little startled, at the ten day weather forecast listing Showers or Heavy Showers for next week and a half. Oh.
Okay, so it's no surprise, right? Not supposed to be anyway, I DO live in Oregon now, and if they are famous for anything, it's rain. But geeze! It's only September and we've been having to turn on the heat every night for three weeks already. Where is that Indian Summer?
Um, well, Allysun, that Indian Summer is in California.
And someone told me today that this winter "is going to be a cold one!" and I left her porch to walk home wondering exactly how cold she might mean, because already my two pairs of jeans, handful of sweatshirts and knitted hats are proving to be wholly inadequate. For my birthday I got closed-toe shoes, with the idea that I would need them for the winter. Even then, at the end of August, I wondered if I would actually wear them. My flip flops really seem to do so well most of the time. But, lo and behold, I wear those closed toe shoes every day now and lament over the fact that I only own two pairs of knee high socks. (Which has me on a diligent hunt for a beginning sock knitting pattern, mind you.)
So, back to our little thunder storm: I walked around the house and noticed outside the mudroom the water was literally pouring down the windows as if someone was holding a hose to it. So I dashed outside just long enough to get wet and cold and take note that someone didn't check the rain gutters and they are now clogged and water is just spilling over the side and running down the house.
And since *I* spent three hours cutting down low tree limbs with our new pole saw (Don't know what a pole saw is? Think of it as a long pole with a chainsaw balanced on the end.) I'll call that someone who needs to clean out the rain gutters Dave. Which I realize isn't completely fair, but the newness of homeownership has already proved to me that there are things I. Just. Can't. Do. Like crawling under the house, or catching a spider, or climbing on the roof. (There are lots of things I will do, like mastering the chainsaw, building bookshelves, sanding and painting the guestroom, and five or six loads of laundry every week.)
I've been talking a lot about all the blog posts I need to post, but since school started I can hardly keep up! So, I'll come around as much as I can, and catch up whenever possible.... any votes for the first catch up blog? Let me know, I do (occasionally!) take requests.
