And Yet Another Storm in Marshall

I actually managed to sleep in on Sunday and was especially pleased that I'd put Big Red in the barn before coming in the house. I had little intention of doing much today apart from house chores, if I could do those. The air outside was thick with humidity and later in the day the sky took on that grey stormy look that I now recognized so well. A few rumbles could be heard in the mountains as the sun struggled to keep shining, but to no avail. Big charcoal grey clouds slowly shoved the sun out of sight and suddenly the wind hit. I ran outside to pull plant pots off stands and onto the floor but within less than 2 minutes I was soaked to the skin by torrential rain.

We used to get the wind as a warning of a storm that gave a good 15 - 20 minutes to quickly prepare but now the wind is simply an announcement that the storm has begun. Thankfully both cats were indoors and we all peered out through patio doors unable to see much with the continuous rivulets of water that gushed down the glass. I took a small video, click here, and after the first lightning flash you can hear a crack where the house was hit. We got hit by lightning 6 times during this storm and I managed to see a flash in the spare bedroom coming out of a redundant cable wire that poked out of the wall. I took care of that the next morning. I was also astounded when for about 3 minutes hailstones clattered against the glass and onto the patio. The temperature had been about 100F before the storm broke, how was it possible to get ice? I didn't want to get drenched again so photos were not an option.
Power went out about 5:00pm and therefore the water too so there was nothing to do but make the best of the situation. I got out the candles again, ready for when it got dark, and drove up to the town to get some ice for the fridge.
I took some photos of the rain drops on my patio plants, everything was saturated yet sparkling and jewel studded.

This last photo is of one of the poor plant pots flooded by the storm. Looking at it from this level made it look like a swamp. As the daylight faded I realized that the power probably wouldn't be coming back for a while so I settled down with some English newspapers and a glass of wine. I'm getting used to this.