We actually had a big old thunderstorm last night, followed by light rain for at least 3-4 hours.
Something that we’d think nothing of normally, has now become a huge event. To go outside this morning and see drops of water suspended from leaves and flowers, along with a blast of much cooler air, was like manna from heaven.
Very, very grateful. We still need a lot of rain to replenish our rivers and wells and plant life, but this is a nice start.
Last week, on Friday, we had 29 minutes of rain. Don and I sat on the porch listening to it come down. Don even timed it on his phone.
These rare bits of rain are now treasured memories.
I coached a lot yesterday. It takes a lot of energy; especially, I find, via zoom. It’s less of an energy drainer if I’m doing it in person. I work with Jim again today, have a phone call scheduled with the director this morning, and then I have a few free days before I drive to Rochester on Sunday.
Don started clearing out our storage space yesterday. It’s on! We’re going to stop paying increasingly expensive monthly fees. They just raised the price by $40/month. Are you kidding me? We had to pay it for this month, but after this? No more.
Stay safe.
Happy Wednesday.
Good for you cleaning out the storage unit.
That is a big increase in this economy. Even with a Social Security increase it doesn’t cover all the increases.
It’s been completely cleared out!
Stay safe.
happy for you to have received some rain! :)
also happy for you and don to soon get rid of that storage fee … $40 increase a month is a huge increase!
prayers on the coaching work, upcoming trip to/from rochester and energy for it all.
i have recordings of rain on my phone (that i watch often) … because i love rain and because anymore it sadly does feel like a rare treat to get rain here.
hope you, don and everyone else will have a nice day and stay safe.
kathy
Thank you, Kathy.
Stay safe.
I am lucky to have a basement so I can store stuff down there – my stuff, my kid’s stuff, my ex-husband’s stuff. It needs a big cleanout but I keep putting it off. Really, if no one has used the stuff for years, why do I still need it? One of these day…
We have no attic or useable basement!
Stay safe, Ellen.
Oh, your rain sounds so nice! A light, gentle rain is soothing…and an occasional thunderstorm can be exciting!
Wow, $40 month increase… that’s a good motivator to clear out the space, definitely! Hope that all goes smoothly!
Don cleared it all out yesterday, Barrie.
Stay safe.
Rain! I too have it on my phone and watch and listen to it. Bill and I both go outside and just take it all in. It is very soothing to me. We are in for an extremely hot weekend. Hopefully this is the last of this kind of heat. Today is Bills birthday. I told him I am sorry for having to deal with me and my surgery tomorrow. He is so easy going and things like that don’t bother him. Such a great guy.
Claudia, hope you get some much needed rest before you have to go back to Rochester. I have to say the drive sounds lovely. Thanks to everybody who sent good karma for tomorrow. Take care!
We’re praying for you, Deb.
Stay safe, my friend.
prayers said for you, deb.
looking forward to hearing your good news about recuperating quickly and then dancing and singing along with keith urban! :)
kathy
How wonderful that you got some measurable rain! That fresh look that everything has is priceless. Love the pic of the droplets. Here’s hoping you get more soon…real soon.
A $40 increase is high. I don’t envy Don the task of clearning out…but kudos to you both. We need to do just that…guess it’s all a matter of making it a priority.
Enjoy your day! ;)
It’s been cleared out!!! Completely empty.
Stay safe.
Hi Claudia,
Yesterday, my grown son told me to go relax on the porch and feel the wind blowing on me. It was beautiful and sunny. About 10 min. later we heard a clap of thunder and suddenly lightning and a hard rain was all around us. About 30 min. later it was over. A rather frightful summer afternoon that left trees and grass with sparkling raindrops. Oh how I wished I had filmed the storm on my phone! A good idea. I’ll film it when the lightning comes again.
A $40 increase would really hurt us, too, as we have 2 storage units. They are mostly filled with antiques and just ragged old furniture that we loved the last 30 years in our old house in SC. So my husband is looking at large storage units to have moved to our home.
Have a wonderful day today!
Thanks so much, Lottie!
Stay safe.
Oh man do I wish we could clean out our offsite storage unit but there’s no way right now; we just dropped off the monthly rent this morning to the tune of $252/month for our garage-sized space. We had the $40 hike in rent in I think June.
So glad you got rain, Claudia. So glad!
Of course we pray for rain in my part of coastal Southern Calif but we just don’t get any.
In fact, I’m back in the house for the first time since 8:30am (now 1pm) in a productive but hellish-hot morning of errands before we shut down as much as possible for the next six or seven days of excessive heatwave warning. We really planned the morning errands so that we could do it efficiently and not backtrack, in 4 different surrounding towns. As I write this, my husband has gone out again, now in 95-degree (f) heat as of 12:30pm, to get our groceries, first big trip in a month to the big-box chain store; I just pray the grid won’t go down when I fill up the freezer part of our fridge. But if you’re lucky enough to be able to hunker down in the cooler house during a long heatwave, not going out for any reason if it can be helped, you gotta eat, so we need foodstuffs here at home.
The beach, for now, was the only cool place this morning at 9am; gorgeous cool breeze, gorgeous blue-green water. No swimmers and only two clueless surfers for a long stretch because, for reasons unknown to me, I heard a headline on the news last night that several of our beaches are tainted with bacteria dangerous to humans. Didn’t stop the dolphins and pelicans. Big schools of dolphins close to shore as well as pelicans diving into the ocean, obviously in what must be good feeding grounds. I love seeing that sleek gray glistening-wet ‘skin’ of the dolphin ‘hide’, going in and out of the undulating water. It looks like they’re frolicking and just having fun, but I think fins in and out of the water were definitely a food hunt. I watched a car parked somewhat near us (beaches weren’t crowded yet) and she was mesmerized by the sight of sea and sea life, appeared to be traveling alone from Arizona (I’m a people watcher!) and her big-girl camera was clicking away. When the passenger train (Amtrak) paralleled the water, I wondered if the passengers could see the dolphins and I think they could, as the dolphins were so close to shore. So, a treat for those people for sure!
I hope as the Labor Day weekend starts ramping up as early as tomorrow (long weekend for some from Thurs to Monday or Tues) that everybody stays safe (and cool, if they’re hot; rain where needed but not so much to be dangerous!). And, Claudia, all best wishes for safe journey over the holiday with your work out of town. I wish Don could go with you for company and maybe a little driver relief (almost a mini-vacay after the work is done).
(I think our little wildlife is even too hot here. I watched a big, fat squirrel drop out of my neighbor’s trees, across her yard and to another, then rush inside those people’s open garage, so I wonder what he’s ‘squirreling’ away in there, or if he’s just wanting a quiet, bigger, shadier place [although our uninsulated garages get darned hot!]. Those people do not have pets, so I know he’s not going for dry cat food set out. Was a kinda weird sight as we rarely have any squirrels around here, not since a rash of mountain lions in former years, who preyed upon the squirrels and decimated their population, or so I’ve been told. It’s not that we don’t have enough trees for them, because we do.)
I’m waking up every morning to a crowing rooster. I guess people are allowed to keep them in a conventional urban neighborhood now? Hope it’s under proper circumstances. He’s really noisy!
We miss hearing our neighbor’s rooster. He was funny and fierce and had the strangest crow!
Stay safe, Vicki.
I toyed with the idea of renting a storage space and realized that I had too much stuff. I would rather have the extra cash …..(not to acquire more stuff). Decided to start using the good stuff and donating the rest. I won’t be here forever and don’t plan on ever having large dinner parties or even big family get togethers. Everyone is so spread out that it is easier for my husband and I to travel to see them. So… little by little…. let go of things. Funny how we spend our lives accumulating….and finding places to store things (just in case). You will feel better. maybe lighter with less. Good luck to you with your coaching and Dons Purge of the Storage Unit.
We are doing the same thing. We’re slowly getting rid of stuff. Much of the stuff in the storage place was taken to the dump. But some of it is precious, and it’s come back home to either live in the house or the shed.
Stay safe, Maria.