Sunday, May 8, 2022

After the wind, snow





Chokecherry snow

A thunderstorm grumbled into being about 11 p.m. last Sunday evening, spitting a bit of light rain and a few tired bolts of lightning. Night rain drumming on the roof was a welcome, peaceful sound. A joyful sound as well, considering two dry years and an April which delivered scarcely a third of the average precipitation we expect to see during the month of "showers."

Despite the fact that I could sleep late if I so chose, I rose Monday morning at 3 a.m. It's a curious fact that when I must rise early I don't want to, and when I can slothfully sleep late I do not. As it turns out, rising early is a good deal for me. Those quiet pre-dawn hours tend to be the most writing-productive hours of the day.

As I puttered around with writing the rain morphed to snow. Big, fluffy, springtime snowflakes, falling straight down with nearly the velocity of raindrops. Two smiles there -- no wind, and lots of lovely water in each and every flake. The view revealed through my east-facing office window was spectacular. Nature makes the best jewels!


The rain/snow combination we received on Monday was ideal. The initial rain was slow and gentle enough to soak in without running off, and the follow-on wet snow provided something like a "slow release" irrigation, allowing the moisture to soak in over time and preventing the runoff which would have happened with heavy rain. It's hard to imagine a better way to break -- even if only temporarily -- the present dry spell.


This time of the year the snow doesn't last very long. By Wednesday there was barely enough left to make little snowmen.



On Thursday it was sunny and quite warm, a beautiful springtime day. Just after 9 a.m. (IIRC) I was preparing to mow the back yard when the fire-tornado-nuke attack siren went off. That last bit is an interesting concept. Until Russia invaded Ukraine in February I hadn't thought about the siren in the sir raid context for a very long time. Anyway, an up-down-up siren tone means a fire department call out while a steady tone means tornado. The steady tone also means air raid, though I might be the only one who remembers that fact. So far as the tornado alert goes, the city schedule for testing the tornado warning calls for a weekly test at 10 a.m. each Thursday. I guess 9:08 a.m. is pretty close. All of this is to introduce a video of Tommy's reaction to the siren. Possibly because I was right there he did not react as he usually does.


That evening, however, he did.


It's been a very busy week since the snow but I'm starting to get my spring chores organized. Today, which is Mothers' Day, we're going to have a little Ocho de Mayo party featuring traditional Americanized Mexican food and a piƱata. Cinco de Mayo was too busy for a party. I think Ocho is close enough. I'll try to get some images to share with you kind readers.

But now the littles are stirring and they're gonna need fuel! 

Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.




10 comments:

  1. Tommy looks like a love. We just picked up a new four legged adopted baby as a companion for our current one. She needs an active playmate and we are crazy, so all is well. You stay well and keep on livin'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tommy is all awesome all the time. So different than Nona was, very extroverted. 4 year old sez... 0yhne8 ueufo5epp1

      Delete
  2. Those little snow people are the cutest things I have seen in a long time! Thanks for sharing those.

    Tommy's singing career sounds better than a lot of stuff on the radio. Sounds like Nona is no longer with us, and pets are part of the family too whose passing leaves a huge unfilled void (even if we pretend they are only working animals).

    Great weather report. I think you still owe us the rest of your post-op recovery tale, perhaps as a Corpsman Chronicle addition?
    John Blackshoe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks John.

      The four year old has a lot of "artist" coursing through her veins; she's constantly surprising me with her intuitive grasp of color, composition, scale, dimensionality, etc. Turning a fading pile of solid phase H2O into ephemeral cuteness is a remarkable skill, in my completely non-biased opinion. ;-)

      Yep, Nona left us last July 31. She was 10 years and 20 days old, or just over 70 by the standard 7:1 ratio, for what that's worth.

      And I agree, I owe ya'll some serious updates.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete
  3. Your report of the snow surprises me. Wyoming and Nebraska were shutting down I-80 and the reports were highly negative.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a beautiful and bountiful spring snowstorm. Unfortunately news reports are all "based on a true story." They did close the roads for a few hours, but that decision tree is so opaque that it doesn't offer much in the way of good info regarding conditions on the ground. The nice thing is that we got needed moisture and cute snow people out of the deal.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Frank!

      Delete
  4. Spring snow, I recall my grandfather referring to it as "poor man's fertilizer."

    Glad to see that all is well.

    And yes, what of Nona, the Wonder Dog?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Chris.

      Yeah, spring snow is a beautiful thing!

      Nona died last July 31. It was her time, I guess. She didn't suffer as far as I could tell and she was healthy and full of life to the last. She had a good life and she enriched the lives of everyone who met her, including a particular state trooper. Which is a story I should share.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete
  5. Was up north (Washington state), where they have precipitation much of the year.
    It did, rain that is.
    The drive home on Monday was relatively dry and sunny until we got to Southern Oregon, where we experienced almost whiteout conditions over the Siskiyou Summit into California.
    Then more of the same when we passed the vicinity of Mt. Shasta.
    Fortunately, the roads were clear.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Skip.

      I'll bet the moisture was welcome in Oregon and NorCal, been reading about how dry it's been there.

      We're having a very nice greenup now, which puts a smile on my face!

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete