Dark and Stormy Night

68 this morning, cloudy and very wet and humid. More storms in the forecast.

Last night was a dark and stormy night indeed. Big, rolling storms with lots of wind, heavy rain, thunder and stupendous lightning. This followed a day of intense heat--in the low 90's and soooo humid. The power went off, of course. The dogs were terrified; even though they are outside dogs they huddled here in the house all night, moving from place to place as if trying to find the safest place. They finally settled on the rug by my bed, and all of us got a couple hours of solid sleep.

At 3am there was quite a lot of excitement though. The dogs had woken us once again, and as we tried to go back to sleep, we heard the strangest squalling outside, something neither of us could identify. Larry was up like a shot, grabbed a gun and flashlight and ran outside, Daisy the dog on his heels. It was pitch black outside, thankfully not raining at that time. Daisy raced up into the woods as Larry shone the light around, trying to see whatever it was. The light caught on two eyes--when Larry went to see what it was, he found a poor, wet, frightened chicken that was so shocked it didn't even move when he picked it up.

Meanwhile Daisy chased whatever it was over the hill. Larry put the poor hen back in the coop and did some further checking around. He's been setting traps for raccoons because we've seen their tracks in the cornpatch, and we lost a chicken the other night. So he feels pretty sure it was a raccoon, and that Daisy managed to scare it enough that it dropped the hen. 

Such a ruckus. It was a while before we all settled back to sleep, and then another crashing storm had the dogs stirred up again. 

This morning we were up early. I'd skipped my shower last night, just too tired to take one, so in the last heavy rain early this AM I grabbed soap and a washcloth and towel and went out in the rain for a cold shower. It wasn't as cold as I expected, and actually felt pretty good, and it was a nice way to wake up. But later in the morning I conked out in my recliner for a short nap, completely unlike me. Then the power came back on--blessings on those sturdy workers--so I was up again.

I am happy to say that the gardens came through relatived unscathed. A few tomato plants blew over, a few branches fell from trees, and in the woods we heard a tree crash down this morning. But no other damage, which is amazing after all that wildness.

And now I am hard at work on the creative writing workshop I'll be leading next week at Allegheny Echoes in Marlinton, WV. We may have more storms this evening, and the humidity is thick, although it hasn't yet got as hot as the 95 that was predicted. I hope we avoid that, as I am no fan of hot weather. Whatever the weather, I'll be in here working away and praying the power stays on so I can complete what I need to do on computer and printer. Fingers crossed.

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