Rain patters against the windows. When I heard that patter before dawn, I wasn't sure if it was rain or some other creature making its way in the world. I was expecting the kind of rain band we got 24 hours ago, where the rain came in a blinding wave.
I almost cancelled my appointment with my spiritual director on Friday because I thought a tropical storm would be on top of us. By Thursday, I could tell that I had a good chance of being able to make it to that appointment and back before the winds came and made driving difficult. I pulled into the driveway about the time the 5 p.m. update from the National Hurricane Center let us know that we were under a hurricane watch. My spouse was taking down the wind chimes, but we decided not to do major preparations for 12 hours, once we saw what the Saturday 5 a.m. update told us.
By Saturday morning, we decided to wait until the 11 a.m. update to decide on whether or not to shutter the windows and pull the yard furniture inside. My spouse put away the smaller items that could be airborne if the forecast winds/wind gusts arrived. I started the pizza dough to get ready for the rainy afternoon ahead.
Instead, the sun came out. I monitored the storm just to be sure we weren't surprised. In the past 3 decades, I've seen more than one storm seem like a non-event in the morning, only to come crashing ashore as a category 4 or 5 storm by the 5 p.m. advisory.
We had pizza and wine. I took a nap. We listened to various versions of songs by Pentatonix. My spouse took a nap. I read all the 5 p.m. updates from the National Hurricane Center. I did some writing and reading. My spouse moved from Pentatonix to the Violent Femmes, and we discovered some great new versions of our favorite songs--and that the band is back together! I've spent time this morning enjoying this concert.
As the sun was setting, for one moment, there was a break in the clouds, an amazing, glowing red hole to the west. I grabbed the camera, but I was too late. I did catch this shot, however:
And here's another common storm image, tropical winds blowing through the palm trees:
Because we had taken naps, we had a later bedtime than usual. I finished reading Timothy Ware's The Orthodox Church, a history of various types of Orthodox Christianity, the next book for my spiritual direction certificate program. I also made some progress on David Hamp's Sunny Days: The Children's Television Revolution That Changed America. I am thoroughly enjoying that one--it's a great look back at iconic PBS shows for children, shows that I watched as they premiered, long ago when I was very young, before my sister was born. I arrived at school already knowing how to read, which made my teacher dismayed, so I tried not to let her know how much I already knew.
This memory of elementary school, too, seems to explain a larger life lesson, but it's more than I want to deal with in this blog post.
This morning, I've been baking, making the house smell like a distant December.
I made this Facebook post: "Yes it is August 2, and I am creating bread that has more in common with Christmas traditions than sourdough. And yes, I still have pizza dough in the fridge after making pizza yesterday. I am being profligate with my yeast! Or maybe extravagant is the the more accurate word."
So it seems that today will be the rainy day this week-end. I was prepared to stay in all week-end, so that's fine. There's more reading to do: the Sealey Challenge! One book of poems each day of August. I have plenty of books to choose from.
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