rain, hail, shine

There are only 28 days left in the year. This year has been a bit of a blur; it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. But I think it’s a bit early to get all reflective and reminiscent, so let’s leave that for another post.

These last six days have been quite a whirlwind – these six days since that epic hail storm last Thursday. Hail the size of cricket balls, apparently (and probably just as heavy) and winds reaching up to 140km/h. It’s a wonder that our house is still standing (our house is pretty old).

There are many broken windows in my area (my house included). Lots of cars dented and windshields cracked. My neighbour’s house took a bit of a battering, but at least the damage seems to be mostly superficial. I’m amazed there aren’t more fallen trees; I haven’t really seen any in my neighbourhood, anyway. I’m supposing that our banana trees don’t count. They weren’t so much fallen as bent. I had to cut some of them down yesterday morning before work.

It was quite a sight to behold, waking up on Friday morning and going outside to survey the damage. It looked and smelt like a battlefield in a war fought between trees and other plants. The backyard was just completely covered with leaves and branches. I’d never seen anything like it.

As bad as everything seemed, I didn’t want to be negative about it. It seems that my mind is constantly looking toward the positive. Leaves all over the ground? Excellent, I’ll rake them up over the week-end (raking leaves is one of my most favourite garden chores). Some stuff got wet? Not a problem – we need to get rid of a few things, and the rest will dry up eventually.

And then there are the “at leasts”: At least no one was hurt (that I personally know); at least only one side of the house was affected; at least the roof didn’t fly away; at least we didn’t lose power. (Well, we did lose power briefly at one stage, but it wasn’t for very long at all.)

It’s also sort of reassuring to know that we have the capacity to deal with problems like this.

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storm, storm, come this way…

Summer will be upon us soon. Tonight we had a bit of a mini storm, or an introductory storm, if you will. It didn’t rain too much around my place, but you could see lightning constantly flashing in the distance, and we did get a decent (albeit, brief) downpour at one stage.

I find that most people either really like or really hate storms. I generally don’t mind a good storm as long as I’m not in the process of travelling to or from work, or am trying to go for a run/cycle/something of that nature. I don’t tend to get overly thrilled by storms, though. Well, not as much as I used to when I was a kid. I have a lot of general/vague memories of watching storms from just within the shelter of the overhanging part of the roof in the backyard. To be able to feel the cool wind, the occasional spray of rain, and the thunder as it rumbles to your core – to be so close to all of this, but still safe within the bounds of the house – that felt awesome.