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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 21, 2019 23:43:30 GMT -6
The weatherman on the news last night said the rain should go back to a normal summer event now. Hoping that means the floodwaters will finally go down and stay down. I was talking to the farmer who leases our farmland yesterday, and he said that there is land that’s been beneath floodwaters since September. I’ve never seen this much rain before. Was supposed to get rain this morning, but it’s still clear blue skies with fluffy white clouds. Got scattered rains predicted all weekend and at the end of next week.
Tell you what...you send me the rain, Phalon can send the cool, and I'll send both of you the umbrella that's keeping me dry.
And Happy Solstice Day! From here on our days are getting shorter. Again.
I don't think you want any part of what we got today. That roar ... I knew it meant trouble. First it was hail. I started praying for my skylights. They haven't leaked in a while, but my cousin told me that they were brittle and could break. I ran from skylight to skylight checking for cracks and breaks. A few hit hard, and there's a photo on Facebook from members who were at my Church just down the road from me. The hail fit the size of their palm. I went from the front of the house to the back of the house watching the hail, and I noticed the trees go very still. I knew that wasn't good.
Then, as I was checking out one skylight I heard the roar. I ran from window to window searching for a funnel. I live in a trailer, and I've been told many times by the news that the best place to go is outside. I ain't doing that unless I have too. The wind was crazy, and the roar was scary, but I saw no funnel to give me reason to go outside and get in the low ditch of trees around my house. So, I just kept running all over the house, checking the skylights, and looking for a funnel.
Mom's dog stayed right with me. As things calmed down, my sister texted me asking if I was okay. There were trees down in both her front yards ... her old one and her new one. And everything that had been out on her carport and porches was gone. So is the well cover. Couldn't find it later. Trees down up and down the road. My cousin's portable carport was turned over. Surprisingly, we still have electricity, while a lot of people around us don't. My b-i-l got stuck in a town about 3-1/2 miles from home. Trees blocking his route home.
Other than my cousin's carport, I didn't see any homes with damage. And my skylights seem to be okay. I plan on having them taken out once all this rain finally stops. No more having to put up with leaks, or worrying about hail damage. I learned that the woman who lives back of the farm lost her barn. A few people were killed and injured by the storm. I was on Facebook until the storm interrupted the connection, letting everyone know the storm was bad and to be safe, as I was running around ignoring my own advice. But, I made it through, so ... .
If ya don't like the thread title, give me a better one to replace it with.
Summertime, you just don't know whooshorg.proboards.com/post/148456/thread
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Post by Phalon on Jun 22, 2019 4:57:39 GMT -6
Dang, Joxie. That sounds scary. Glad you stayed safe!
The thread title seems fitting for here too...for now anyway (though Stepper would probably disagree where he is!). It rained here all night and Wednesday, and into most of Thursday. Yesterday was pretty though - you gotta take it when you can get it. It's supposed to be nice again today, though cloudy. Thunderstorms predicted for Sunday and Monday.
Of course. My days off.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 23, 2019 2:08:04 GMT -6
I've only had a handful of scary weather related events. Thankfully. Dad always told us that the river protects us from tornadoes. He said the tornadoes jumped the river and went over us before landing back on the ground. I have to admit I was starting to doubt him that day. The weatherman mentioned downdrafts, downbursts and mircobursts, which is probably why only trees were damaged. (Oops, forgot about the barn ... but that's the direction the wind and roar were coming from, so that spot might have been closest to the strong winds.) I think the grove of trees that grow in a ditch that forms a semi-circle on each side and back of my house protects me. I didn't lose anything on my porches. Nighttime storms don't seem to be as scary. I can't see how dark the clouds are, or the strength of the wind in the trees. There's still fear, but it's more about the unknown, than what I can see when it's daylight out.
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Post by Phalon on Jun 25, 2019 5:22:00 GMT -6
They say the same thing about the lake here - that tornadoes don't form, or won't hit along the shoreline.
We didn't get any of the severe storms that were predicted for Sunday and yesterday, although a couple of minor storms passed through. Lots of thunder and rain, but not a lot of wind, and no hail. The severe stuff must have passed over us; Xena Sis and I were sitting on her porch last night having a couple of beers when a storm passed through, and though it only lasted a few minutes here, we watched the sky light up with lightning inland. It was almost like watching a fireworks display.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 25, 2019 20:14:33 GMT -6
It stormed here on Sunday. I kept praying it would hold off until later in the evening. We had a Church member go to Florida on vacation, and then pass out shortly after getting there. She had had a heart attack. She passed away a few days later. Her funeral was supposed to have been on Saturday, but the plane was delayed. The storm rolled in just as the visitation service was ending. I didn't go to the grave site, so I don't know if they stayed at the Church until the storm passed. I came home as it started to rain, and the wind nearly blew me away as I headed to my car. Sadly, the woman's husband had passed away in April. Two less people to see at Church now. Soon, I'll be among the oldest members. There are still a few other members in their 70s, or older.
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Post by Phalon on Jun 26, 2019 5:10:37 GMT -6
Sorry that your church lost two members, and very sad that the husband and wife died so close together.
After a beautiful day yesterday, another storm passed through here last night. If this morning though, is an indication of the day, it'll be another beautiful one. It's sunny and calm, and I was just walking outside with my morning cup of coffee, popping a spent flower here and there off the marigolds on the border of the vegetable garden, enjoying the wet freshly cut grass on my feet. I wish there was more time this morning to meander outside, but I've got to get ready for work.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 30, 2019 3:06:48 GMT -6
My sister's grandkids will be with their dad this week, so we had fireworks tonight. Along with grilled burgers and hot dogs, and vanilla & Milky Way homemade ice cream. And store bought mini-cupcakes. Yum. Had a nice evening.
http://instagram.com/p/BiMKJ1ehY0e
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Post by Phalon on Jun 30, 2019 7:08:18 GMT -6
Sounds like a fun evening, and OMG!, that ice cream sounds richly decadent!
I've got to work on the Fourth, so we're doing our family cookout next weekend - minus BP and her boyfriend; they're going to Chicago, which is a graduation gift from us. She's there this weekend too, for a graduation party - most of her friend's extended family is in the Chicago area, so that's where they had the party. LX and The Boyfriend drove her here yesterday morning, and from here, she rode with her friend's family to the Chicago area. They are going to the Chicago Pride Parade today, and then when she gets back here, I'll drive her back down to LX's.
Since LX and The Boyfriend drove BP home, they spent yesterday here. The annual art fair is this weekend, and after going to that and lunch, they went to the beach for the remainder of the day, coming back to the house just as I was pulling into the driveway after work. We had a nice evening visiting, just hanging out on the back porch yik-yakking while watching the fireflies, which have just started coming out this past week.
I like having them only an hour away, rather than the 2 1/2 hours when they were up in the town where LX went to college or the same distance away when they were in Indiana, and even farther when they were in Detroit. Visits are much more leisurely, and goodbyes aren't as 'I don't know when we'll have time to see each other again'.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 1, 2019 2:15:20 GMT -6
I add both vanilla & Milky Way ice cream to my bowl. I will sometimes scoop up both on my spoon if/when the 'fudge' is too rich for me. The last time my sister made it, she used Snickers bars. I told her Babe Ruth bars might work well too. Maybe add salted peanuts to the mix as well ... for both the Babe Ruth & Snickers versions.
I'll never experience the 'empty nest' feels. It's probably both a good and bad feeling. You miss the girls, but it must be nice to be just you and hubs again sometimes. Or not.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 2, 2019 5:21:43 GMT -6
That's it exactly. I think I miss them most weeknights; Hubs goes to bed a lot earlier than I do during the work week, and the girls and I are more night people, especially in the summertime. Both of them have always worked the closing shift with their summer jobs, and when they got home was our time for 'girl talk' or late night movies.
Hubs and I are having fun though. I do need to work on getting him out more - he's a homebody, and would be content I think, to never leave the property it seems. I like to get out and see new places, do and learn new things, and the girls were always up for an adventure. Unless I "schedule" an outing well in advance, getting Hubs to do something "last minute" (which is sometimes a couple days in advance) is like pulling teeth. He always has a good time going somewhere...if I can get him to go!
See the gardening thread (if I have time this morning) for the "or not" part!!!
* * *
An alternative title here to this thread, especially this week, could be "Summertime, The Tourist Onslaught Never Ends..."
Yesterday, at the grocery store was a perfect example. I went early to, what I thought would, beat the crowds of tourists stocking up for the holiday week. Pfft! There weren't even any grocery carts available! (Although there were some of the "mini" carts left). Another customer and I had to scout the parking lot for empty carts - she found two, and frantically waved me over before someone else got them. Maneuvering through the store was a nightmare; kids in bathing suits running through the aisles wasn't even as bad as the groups of old ladies in bathing suits gathered in front of the shelves trying to decide which would be the best brand of whatever to buy. (And who-the-f**k wears a bathing suit to a grocery store???!) Urgh.
All the tourists though, might be in for a big disappointment this week. Our fireworks display, which normally brings in 10,000 people to our small town, is in limbo. The beach, with the lake level at its highest in 20 years, is a quarter of the size it normally is, and the pier where the fireworks are launched, is still nearly underwater. If it's predicted to be windy, with the water level so high, the waves will crash over the pier, and the fireworks can't be launched.
Speaking of waves crashed over the pier, you gotta check out what washed over the pier in a storm last week - Lake Michigan's version of the Loch Ness Monster. Though the video is poor, you can clearly see largeness of the "monster". Scary, scary!!!
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 2, 2019 13:34:34 GMT -6
Whoa! It kind of reminds me of a leech. The way they can stretch out long and lean, and bunch up short and fat. But that could be an illusion due to a bad video.
I will wear clothes to the stores on vacation I would never wear locally. With strangers it isn’t embarrassing, and any gossip won’t reach the folks back home. Probably the same with these tourists too.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 3, 2019 5:15:22 GMT -6
General consensus at the hair salon where the woman who cuts my hair showed me the video, was that it was a sturgeon, which get about 8 feet long. It looks more eel-like than fish-like to me though, and sturgeon are a silvery color. There aren't any eels (except the invasive sea lamprey) in Lake Michigan though. Someone posted in the comment section on YouTube saying someone parasailing lost their sail, and that's what it was...although, there wouldn't be any boats out in a storm to launch the para-sailor, and they wouldn't have launched in the channel anyway, which is where the thing slithers up onto the pier.
Logic would dictate it's some kind of large piece of trash, but the way it "dives" down into the water on the other side, definitely looks like something a living creature would do, rather than a piece fabric or tarp. But who knows what lurks in the depths of Michigan's largest Great Lake?
It's going to be another hot one today - yesterday, it got into the 90s. Blah. We just got an all too short sampling of the mid-70s, my favorite range of temperatures. Fireworks are on for tonight.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 4, 2019 3:06:53 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Jul 4, 2019 6:00:08 GMT -6
Oh! I hope it's fixed soon - it's going to be a steamy one out there (here).
It was so weird yesterday, coming home from work. It was sunny and the sky was bright blue and clear. As I got close to my exit off the highway, I saw billowing clouds of smoke coming from the woods. Once I was on the exit ramp, it appeared there was a fire somewhere, although I couldn't pinpoint where exactly - on the road into town, the smoke just seemed to be everywhere, though it was thickest in the opposite direction from where I was going. Turning onto the road which faces the lake, which is the road that I turn off and into our neighborhood, it looked like downtown was blanketed in smoke. I asked Hubs if he'd heard firetrucks, because there was definitely a fire somewhere - it's been so dry and hot the last week, I guessed someone might have been letting off fireworks, and a field had caught fire nearby, or a campfire at a nearby campground got out-of-control. Wisps of smoke were starting to drift into the yard, and collecting into the lower ground of the ravine.
Then suddenly the high humidity disappeared, and was replaced by cool, almost chilly air. It wasn't smoke from a fire - it was a heavy, but very small band of lake fog! It dispersed very quickly though, and we were back to thick humidity. It was just weird how it was suddenly there, and just as suddenly gone.
Working today - holiday hours so I don't have to be in until 10am. Been watering my potted plants around the yard all morning - 15 down, and 16 more to go. Better get moving; the sun is already blazing.
Later. Have a safe and happy Fourth.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 5, 2019 2:42:52 GMT -6
Unfortunately, I'm sitting in a hot house with a fan blowing on me to keep me from dying. LOL! Poor b-i-l worked most of today on it, but couldn't get parts from old a/c to work. He'll have to get a new part tomorrow. He usually has to work a lot of holidays, so I felt bad that when he got one off he had to spend it working on my a/c. I was invited over to stay with my sister, but there's no place like home, no matter how hot it is.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 5, 2019 5:23:58 GMT -6
I hope he gets it fixed for you today. It's unbearably humid here. Yesterday at work was a two-shirter; could have been a three-shirter, but I only brought two, and was sweat-soaked before noon. Hubs texted me a picture of his thermometer in the garage - it read 120 degrees! It wasn't that hot outside, of course, but it was sweltering for sure.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 5, 2019 23:37:50 GMT -6
It got up to around 92 degrees in the house. My screens are dry rotted, so I couldn't open any windows, which is probably for the best. Had a fan on me when I wasn't moving around. About an hour or so before b-i-l got home from work I was sweating in front of the fan. I got a tea towel and wet it and laid it across me so that the fan would help it cool me down. That helped during the worst of it. The outside temps got up to 90F ... but feels like 101F. Not a good day to not have a/c.
I'm now officially cold. The a/c has been running since about 5pm, and the house is 72 degrees right now. I have it set on 70, but turned it up to 72 so it would kick off and get some rest. Dog seems content now too.
http://instagram.com/p/Bzi0cSbAuGp
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Post by Phalon on Jul 7, 2019 6:11:23 GMT -6
I'm glad for you that it's fixed! It's no fun being that hot. The heat and humidity pretty much wiped me out this week!!! For the past two days, I'd get home from work, clean-up, eat dinner, and crash! Fall asleep, and not wake up until midnight...and then be wide-awake for a couple of hours before going to bed, and sleeping like a rock until morning.
LX, the Boyfriend, two of his siblings, his Stepdad and wife were supposed to come for a cookout yesterday evening. LX called me at work yesterday, and asked if it'd work better if they came for lunch today instead. YES!!!! Coming home all sweaty and dirty after working outside in the heat all day, having to rush to clean up, get food ready, and entertain would have been difficult.
And today is supposed to be gorgeous with both the humidity and temperature dropping. It already feels better out there than it has in the mornings this past week - in the high sixties instead of 80 degrees by 7am, and no humidity.
Welp. I'd better getting going. I've got a floor to mop, a bathroom to clean, and deviled eggs to make.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 8, 2019 7:17:03 GMT -6
OMG, what a gorgeous day it was yesterday! I've so glad we waited - the weather could not have been more perfect for a cook-out. We even ate outside, moving the picnic table from under the porch overhang into the grass and spreading it with one of my Mom's vintage tablecloths - there is no way anyone would have wanted to sit outside the day before, eating with temperatures in the 90s and humidity just as high. Hubs grilled burgers with all the fixings (which of course, included his homemade pickles); I made deviled eggs, and fruit salad, and LX brought the potato salad.
Afterward, we all walked downtown (exploring one of LX and the Boyfriend's favorite places - it's a three-story 1800's building that's pretty much abandoned except the lower level - stopped in the ice-cream shop for dessert, strolled down to the beach (or what's left of the beach; I haven't been down there in a while. I was shocked at how little is left with the water so high), and back up through the old neighborhoods full of Victorian houses. The Boyfriend's siblings are sweet - a teenage sister, and preteen brother. Though I've met his stepdad, I've never met the kids; they live with their Mom out in Oregon, but spend the summers in Indiana.
This morning is just as gorgeous. Sublime, even. It was barely 60 degrees earlier, and is around 65 now. Perfect! It's an open-window day, instead of running the air-conditioning.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 11, 2019 5:10:41 GMT -6
Yesterday was horrid - back in the 90s, with extremely high humidity.
Today's forecast is for cooler temperatures in the 70s. "Sunny and beautiful" says AccuWeather.
I love the 70s!!! (though bellbottoms, in my opinion, were a mistake!)
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 11, 2019 15:28:42 GMT -6
You and my Dad agree. Me. I _LOVE_ bell bottoms. I wore them for as long as I could find them.
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Post by moonglum on Jul 13, 2019 4:40:36 GMT -6
The weather here has been glorious for the past couple of weeks. We spent some time at the caravan just lazing around and getting burnt, then came back home and caught up with the gardening. Oh how quickly the grass grows. We've got the house to ourselves, youngest daughter and 'other half' are at the caravan till tomorrow so we've been making the most of the peace and quiet.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 13, 2019 10:17:51 GMT -6
We’re expecting Barry to bring wind and rain here. Oh, and cooler temperatures. It is what it is. Weather is like that.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 14, 2019 9:24:21 GMT -6
We've flipped-flopped here between those glorious 70 degree days and the hot and humid 90s - nothing in-between. What's been consistent though, is a lack of rain! Can you believe it - all that seemingly never-ending rain here for months, all of the sudden stopped 'cold turkey'; we haven't had anything since about the 25th of June, and since we are living on what was basically once a sand dune, the lack of water is hard-felt.
And oh - that gigantic "thing" I posted the video of that slithered across the pier that everyone was calling The Lake-Ness Monster? The experts have have weighed in and determined it was indeed, a sturgeon. That's their best guess anyway! If that's what is was, given the width of the pier is 35 feet across, it'd be the largest sturgeon in Lake Michigan ever recorded.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 14, 2019 22:00:15 GMT -6
Yeah, I'd agree with that. They're eel-like.
A really bad storm blew in last night and took my lights out at around 11pm. Got lights back on at 9:28am. My phone alarm had gone off at 9 for me to get ready for Church, but I decided if I had to deal with the garage door, I'd just as soon stay home. I still had time to get dressed once the lights came back on, so made it to Church on time. Good thing it's just up the road. Barry is supposed to bring in more rain this week. Joy. I heard a couple of 'pings' just before one lightning hit very close to the house. Lost the DVD recorder in my bedroom. It refused to come on when I tried to reset the clock and timers.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 16, 2019 5:04:03 GMT -6
I've only seen them in pictures - kinda creepy, but cool that they are from prehistoric times, and can live to be more than 100 years old! I saw a gar fish once when I was a kid and we were camping - they are just as prehistoric looking as sturgeon.
Rain, glorious rain!!! A surprise rain, but very welcomed - the last time I checked the forecast, Sunday I think, there wasn't any precipitation in the forecast for 9 days. It was a light, but steady rain - light enough that I could walk around the yard in it this morning, kinda basking in the gloriousness of it all, and steady enough that it lasted about 45 minutes. Hopefully that was long and steady enough that it'll do some good. Bringing down the temperature would be most welcomed!
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 19, 2019 1:00:17 GMT -6
We're having a heatwave. Supposed to cool down next week a bit. But, it's summer, so the heat is here to stay for a while. More sunshine than rain next week though, so ... . I'm expecting a drought to follow all this rain and land under floodwaters since last September.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 19, 2019 6:30:10 GMT -6
Well, here we go...
Like much of the country, the temperature expected to be in the triple-digits today; the humidity is already oppressive.
So not looking forward to working outside in this weather. It's cloudy though - perhaps odd that one wishes for the sun to not shine, but today is one of those days.
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Post by Phalon on Jul 19, 2019 21:54:33 GMT -6
Pant, pant, pant.
<slimes in, a sticky, wet lump of goo, just vaguely resembling her former self>
Give me a snowy 30 degree day in January, and I will take it over this cr@p. Every single time.
And tomorrow is supposed to be worse than today.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jul 20, 2019 0:26:45 GMT -6
The sad thing about humidity ... you never really get used to it.
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