The Rains Have Finally Ended

 

Gentle rain filling up my new pond

I've always wondered what it would be like to live in Seattle Washington. The last five days gave me a taste of that weather. I didn't like it. Rain, rain and more rain. 

Two good things that came out of this deluge. One is that the repair I had done last year of the sewer pipe going out our basement wall worked. Thank goodness! The second thing is that my new pond is full. And looking good I might add.

But to live with all this rain. This weather pattern was the remnants of Hurricane Ian.  We didn't get hit with the ferocity of Hurricane Ian but we did get stuck under Ian's weather pattern. This is the kind of weather pattern that is normal for the northwest of our country. Seattle Washington and environs. 

We needed a good rain though. This summer has been very dry. Most of our summers are very dry. Suffocating heat and humidity and little rain. This summer was no exception. I'm ready for some really nice fall weather now.

Rain, Rain and More Rain!

 

BJ's parking lot, feeding the seagulls

Be careful of what you wish for.

For most of this summer we've had very little rain here in southern Delaware. I've had to fill watering cans full of water to tend my flower border garden almost all summer. Not now though.

For the past two days we've been under a deluge of rain. right now it is 10 AM Monday morning and the rain is softly falling on the roof of this room where my home office is located. This room, which was a small bedroom that I converted into a home office (Question: why don't they build houses with homes offices now? Aren't we past my Mother's era where the home office was the kitchen formica table?) But I digress. This room has a pitched ceiling which I've always found so cool, especially when it's windy or rainy outside. So comfy in this room when the weather gods are sorting things out outside. 

I don't know if this rain is the remnants of Hurricane Ian, all I know is that it's been raining steady for two days now and forecast for two more days. 

We got stuck in the rain yesterday when I drove me and Bill down to Millsboro and B J's Wholesale to stock up on bulk household essentials like oatmeal (for Bill), Puffs tissues (for both of us) and Healthy Choice fudge pop sickles (for me). I got a late start yesterday because Sunday is my weekly Zoom meeting with my friends Stuart, Pat and Larry at 10 AM. If I hadn't had that Zoom meeting I would have missed the downpour we were caught in when I exited BJ's with my cartload of goodies. I did hang around the entrance waiting for the downpour to let up but it wasn't doing it. I checked the satellite map on my iPhone and it looked like the rain was going to be awhile. I decided to make a dash for our car which, of course I parked at the far end of the parking lot because I had brought down some old chips and tortillas for the sea gulls. 

Dash I did in the maelstrom. By the time I got to our car, the rain let up (of course) and I was soaked. Nice move Ron. And I mean SOAKED. Usually I guess these things right but not yesterday. I drove us home a soggy mess. 

Looking out the window now I see that the rain has let up a bit. I would like to stop down at the Rehoboth Walmart to see if they have any of their cinnamon crunch cereal which I have recently fallen in love with. You know Walmart has the best cereal and cheap. Have you checked the prices of cereal lately? Approaching five bucks a box. Walmart cereal I can usually get for just over two dollars and it's good! I especially like their 100%  bran cereal that gives you almost 100% of all your daily vitamins intake. I recently bought a box of Kellogs bran cereal which offered a similar high dosage of vitamins because Walmart was out of bran cereal, which they often are. Seems like I'm not the only one in on this secret. Well, the Kellog's Total cereal at over $5 a box, flat tasting. Awful. I think I'll feed that one to the birds. They're not as picky as me.

Rainy days like this make me sleepy. I think I'll take a little nappy poo. 

Again, so thankful that we didn't get hit by Hurricane Ian like those poor folks in Florida. I just can't imagine. 

Have a great day folks!

Ready for Hurricane Ian

 Hurricane Ian, that's who!

Actually, here in the Delmarva peninsula we will only receive the tropical storm remnants of Hurricane Ian, 

Right now the time if 6:30 PM Friday night. All day the winds have been whipping around with light rain. However, make no mistake about it the heavy rains are on their way. Maybe now I'll get my new pond filled up.  

We're the blue dot on this satellite map

Again, I am so thankful that where we live here on the Delmarva peninsula, only two miles from the Atlantic Ocean, that we again are dodging the bullet of a direct hit by a hurricane. 

I remember my first Hurricane. It was Hurricane Hazel and the year was 1954. As a young boy I was so impressed yet scared of this weather phenomenon that was all over the news, creating fear. We lived in a second floor apartment on Washington Avenue in the small Pennsylvania town of Downingtown. When the winds began I took our dog out for a "walk", nervous as could be for a 12 year old boy experiencing his first hurricane. My Mother warned me not to go outside but I did anyway. I didn't stay out too long though once those winds almost blew me over. Later I found out the winds velocity was only about 60 MPH but that was enough for me.

  Since then I've experiences many hurricanes, the last one being Hurricane Floyd in 1999. For my efforts in getting to work at my job as a hotel front desk clerk at the Hampton Inn during Hurricane Floyd I won a trip to Disney World. Ironically Disney World is located in Orlando, Florida, the state that so often suffers the destruction of hurricanes. 

Of all the hurricanes I've experience I've never been in one that was a direct hit on where I lived. The closet call was Hurricane Sandy which only missed us here in southern Delaware by fifty miles. PHEW! 

They keep saying here in Sussex County, Delaware we're due for THE BIG ONE. I'm eighty years old now. I sincerely hope I MISS that event. A few years ago we had one of those water funnels (mini tornado) tear through our back yards here in our development where Casa Tipton-Kelly is located. That "little" tornado tore out a huge chunk of my favorite river birch tree, just missing my bedroom by feet. That's close enough for me folks.