April Showers


We have always been blessed or maybe cursed with wind at the house. I mean in the Summer months it is always good to have a wind to cool down. Not the Spring and Fall however, it can get wicked. Even in the Winter, the wind can howl so much you can't understand how the house remains standing. With April just in bloom it started me thinking about episodes that occurred in the past.

When we first moved in neighbors would tell us that our house was called tornado alley to anyone in the neighborhood. Rumor has it that a large sign that was attached to a factory downtown ended up in our backyard. We have two flagpoles, one in the front yard that I got for one of my birthdays and another one that is in the upper lawn. Both attract lightning and can be very scary.

In one of my previous stories, I related how the lightning hit our great pine tree. There was another tree taken down by a storm but it was closer to the house. It happened one night when a particular bad storm was going through. It was one of our better shade trees. We had our picnic table under the tree. The tree came down and took out our electric lines. We had to have some major work done to fix the problem. One day my daughter and I decided to go the the local mall. We ran into a real storm and by the time we got to the mall everything was dark.  No lights at the mall and a flooded parking lot convinced us to hurry home. We ended up driving through a flooded road under a viaduct. We floated more than drove.

We made it home only to hear about the funnel cloud that went through our backyard witnessed by my husband. He related how parts of trees and debris went flying through the air and we had missed it. My husband has always been fascinated by storms. I used to be afraid of storms but since I've been married to him, I have gotten to enjoy them to some extent. We will sit on our patio and watch the distant lightning flash and count the seconds in between the on going lightning strikes and see how close the storm is.

The rain can be a problem too. Flooding close to the house can cause worry for the basement and we have to watch the level in the swimming pool. If the water goes over the top it will get behind the lining and cause all kinds of problems. One good thing about all the rain and the snow fall is that our well will be in good shape. We have been lucky with our well. We have had all the water we have ever needed, even in the driest of summers.

We have a water gauge and keep track of the rain in the summer. Also a wind gauge to determine which direction the wind is coming from.  We love to keep track of anything to do with the outdoors.

I can remember growing up my parents had me so afraid of storms that we would be on alert to head to the basement at any moment. I think my dad is still like that to this day. If there was a wind during the night hours we would be up all night long just in case something would happen. I don't remember anything ever happening, thank heaven. My grandmother was the same way, maybe worse.  We couldn't use the phone because we might be electrocuted. No taking a shower and no going outdoors.

I can actually sleep through most of the night storms now and I don't think my daughter is afraid of them at all so at least I haven't past that on to her. So even though April can be rainy, it seems to clean every thing up and the flowers sure spring up fast so I can handle the storms knowing that May is just around the corner.

From our backyard to yours, keep that umbrella handy!

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