Weird weather

Weird day here at the Aerie. The weather quacks put the odds of rain at between 70 and 90% in last nights forecast so Terry and I opted to "sleep in" this morning rather than head to Hills Creek State Park for our regular Saturday morning bird walk. Gary lives nearer and leads most of the walks so we would be participants only. (We actually didn't sleep in much. We both got up at 6:45 AM even though Chester didn't "rour?" at the door.)

Coming down stairs and looking across the valley it sure looked like it was raining--over there to the northwest. Not here, however. The Aerie was bone dry although you could smell moisture in the air. And that's pretty much the way things stayed all morning. It looked like it was raining to the north. It looked like it was raining to the west. It looked like it was raining to the southwest. But at the Aerie? Bupkis. Nada. Nil. Zip. Nothing. (Except for a bout 20 raindrops that fell when I drove about 3 miles northwest to get the mail. And most of them fell on the truck when I was at the post office.)

After lunch, the sky even cleared completely and was a brilliant blue with only a few cumulus clouds. But that didn't last. Terry and I pulled some boxes of books out of the attic and out of the garage and out of the basement and started filling the bookshelves in the basement. We also set some books aside for the library book sale that's coming up. We emptied a dozen or more boxes of SciFi and Fantasy and Mystery and nonfiction books. There are maybe just as many boxes left but only a few are actually books. Some are office supplies and many, many are magazines (I will not throw away a woodworking or cooking or gardening magazine that I might find a plan or recipe in. Terry's the same way with her stitching and beading mags--but she emptied her boxes into her "sewing room" months ago.

All this was done while I watched the Mets against the Dodgers. (Mets pulled it out with a double, homerun and a couple of singles scoring 3 runs in the 8th inning to win 3-2.) Outside, things had gotten dicey again. The wind had picked up and was swirling around. A severe thunderstorm warning (with possibilities of 3/4 inch hail!) flashed across the screen and the sky to the north grew ominously dark. You could see rain falling across the valley to the north. You could see rain to the northwest. You could here the occasional rumble of thunder to the southwest. But there was still no rain here at the Aerie.

Shortly after 6 PM the sky started to clear and the temperature dropped. The sun was shinning as it began to sink lower int he northwest but there were still some dark clouds overhead. And sure enough, NOW it began to rain. With the sun shinning brightly. But it didn't last long or even soak the ground with much moisture. Waht landed seemed to evaporate within moments.

And now the sky is clear again and there's a slight, cool breeze causing the tree leaves to quake and rattle. Some might say we dodged the bullet, but we haven't had a real rain for over a week despite the forecasters' best attempts to create one. We could sure use a little rain even if it means the clay road will be slicker than a card shark on a riverboat and the cars will end up looking like wallowing hogs.

The weather quacks are still calling from some scattered thunderstorms tonight. If we don't get any, I'll be watering the plants tomorrow morning while Terry goes off to church.