Weather Alert

There was a lot of thunder and rain Tuesday night, and we were awakened yesterday morning by weather alerts on our telephones informing us that a strong storm system was coming through our area and that we were under a tornado watch. That wasn’t a surprise because the night before, the weatherman had predicted afternoon storms with wind, hail, and even the possibility of scattered tornadoes.

My Mustang is parked in the garage, and we usually park the Pacifica and the Ram in the driveway in front of the garage. We have a carport down the hill on the barn road where the Kawasaki Mule, Kubota tractor, and Husqvarna riding lawn mower are parked. Our son Travis called to suggest I might want to move the Mule and tractor into the barn at the back of the property and park the van and pickup in the carport. With all the hail that was predicted, that sounded like a good idea. We could park the vehicles that way all the time but I’m lazy and don’t want to walk up and down the hill every time we come home from town, or all the way to the back of the property to get the Mule or the tractor from the barn. Eventually we are going to put up some kind of metal building or barn closer to the carport.

It was starting to sprinkle about the time I got all of the vehicles arranged, and there was quite a bit of thunder rumbling. But all we got during the day were a few showers and lots of threatening thunder, accompanied by some occasional lightning. The tornado warning was lifted at 5 PM, with the weatherman saying we could expect more storms overnight and this afternoon, though not nearly as severe. I guess we dodged a bullet again.

During the afternoon we watched a Robin Williams movie on Amazon Prime that I had never even heard of before called The Angriest Man In Brooklyn. It’s about a man who goes through life mad at the world, but has an awakening when a doctor tells him he only has 90 minutes to live. I guess you could call it a dark comedy, and the language is rough, but it has a very good message about the priorities in life. I have always said that Robin Williams was one of the greatest performers that ever lived. He could play the madcap comic or serious roles that would bring a tear to your eye, and I think this may well be the only one of his movies I had never seen until now. The world lost an amazing talent when we lost him.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of my pal Ken Rossignol’s The Chesapeake: Country Cornpone Cornucopia. It’s a series of short stories of and about people in and around the Tidewater Chesapeake region – along with a few stories from other regions during the writer’s travels. This mix of history and humor is the perfect way to pass time on a beach or promenade deck.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing Link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – The days that break you are the days that make you.