May 28, 2014

Stormy Afternoon - Wonderful Rain

May 28, 2014

This morning I was able to sleep until 6:30 and it felt wonderful.  I am not sure I moved last night once I went to sleep.  I think I was tired!  The birds needed to be fed and I decided to take some photos of the hanging baskets and the Royal Poinciana tree.  Everything in the yard is growing so well right now.

The weather was very nice this morning, but the forecast was for it to get very hot with a 10% chance of an afternoon shower or thunderstorm. 

I took care of a few quick chores at the house before going to the office.  Ron had an appointment with the dermatologist this morning, so shortly after I got to the office, he left.  I was pretty busy while he was gone and it was well after noon when he got back.  The doctor had frozen several places of sun damaged skin. 

During the morning I got the blog entry for yesterday done.  During the afternoon I did some bookkeeping work for the office.  Then around 4:00 I asked Ron if he cared if I went on home.  My office has no windows and when I went to talk to him about my leaving I saw that it was getting dark from thick clouds.  I went back to the computer and checked the weather.  It looked like we could get some heavy rain, but it also looked like there was a chance it would miss us, as often happens.

I had one customer late in the afternoon that I just couldn't understand.  Just as he had started to talk, Ron had started using one of the noisy machines behind me.  I told the man he would have to wait until Ron was finished until I could hear him.  When Ron finished, he took over with the customer.  Later he came and asked if I could understand the man.  I said, "Not a word."  It turned out Ron knows him and that they are friends, but Ron said he and another friend of theirs can't understand him well either.  It was good to know my hearing hadn't just gotten worse!

On the way home I stopped for tortillas to make tacos for supper, but the sky was quickly getting darker and I hurried to get home and check the mail, etc. before the storm hit.  I still felt that as so often happens, the storm could bypass us.  After getting the mail I turned on the TV to find out that we were under a tornado warning and the area of concern was just about 3 miles north of us.  That got my attention.  I sat down at the computer to post on Facebook that we had a tornado warning and the rain started. 

The winds picked up and really blew the trees around.  I had hoped for about an inch of rain.  Our son who is one of our assistant city managers said the city got 3 1/2 inches in 30 minutes!  That is heavy rain!    I took several videos of the heavy rains and enjoyed every minute of it (after the tornado warning was lifted).  

Hearing the rain.  Hearing it pour off the roof and splatter on the sidewalk.  Hearing it drip, drip, drip on the leaves of the plants right outside the window where I sat.  Hearing the thunder roll, and roll, and roll.  All these sounds were beautiful.  In our home we have always loved the rain.  Our kids love it.  Ron and I love it.  There is something so beautiful and soothing in a rain shower.  This was more than a shower.  I am so thankful I could hear it all.  It sounded heavenly.

Following the rain, I went out to check on things.  There were a few broken limbs, but nothing major.  As the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, a beautiful rainbow appeared.  God's promise.  God has so many wonderful promises for us.  This one is that He will never again destroy the world by flood.  

Blooms from my lovely Royal Poinciana tree (pictured at the top of this blog) littered the yard, the ponds, and the birdbaths.  It fared better than I expected, but it took a real beating.

 This morning before the storm

 

This afternoon after the storm

After a rain storm the air is so clean and clear.  It was a beautiful evening.  

I made the tacos for our supper.  Ron was late coming home.  The area at the office had flooded as usual and he had to get out the sandbags and did a lot of sweeping water out of the warehouse.  I know he was exhausted.  We keep the sandbags handy.