It’s been raining most of the evening and we’ve also had thunder, lightning, and my Porch is covered with hail. It’s wonderfully thick and crunchy. Yes, I had to go out to check on it. Inside, I knew it was hailing, but I had no idea what kind of hail it was, hence the checking on it portion of this story. Barley. About the size of barley. Maybe a little bigger.

It was windy, too. Most of the day was exceedingly windy. The branches left on trees after last week’s winds did their best to find their fallen friends today. Last week, our jacaranda lost a huge limb. I did my best to clean up the debris, used an electric saw to do the heavy lifting, so to speak. I had to give up when I got the largest and thickest part of the branch cut into three sections. My neck, back, and brain couldn’t take much more of the jiggle joggle beating that comes with sawing something that big and that dense. I’ll be back at it tomorrow now that there’s even more to tackle. I have no idea what to do about the broken limbs still stuck in the tree though. I mean, obviously, I’ll have to wait for them to come down on their own, but I’ll have to keep watch on them while I’m working to clear the debris on the ground. Not exactly the ideal situation, is it?

This is what jacaranda wood looks like when you cut into it.

It’s really lovely when a storm like this comes through. I like having an excuse to curl up and do nothing. Fletch likes it, too.

Earlier, in between the various waves of rain, I put out some catnip for the kittens. They were already feeling frisky, but I thought it would be fun to see what would transpire with nip thrown into the equation. Let me tell you: it was hysterical! They were having such a good time attacking each other and then rolling around on the porch. They’d get into little offensive strikes from a supine position, wriggle or roll their way closer, slap tails, bat paws, ears back and flat, a little grumble, and then someone would decide to leap up and launch themself at the other. It was so entertaining! I could’ve watched for hours.

I guess it’s time to think about getting out another Blanket. At 20:00 hours, it’s 45° and only going to get colder. Because this is an old building with old windows, I have a slight breeze at all times. There’s only so much you can do to combat the chill. The individual heating/AC units in the bedroom and living room are fine, but I can’t take a lot of heat from them. I layer clothing and do fairly well with that, however, the added cold air means I need something more effective. So that’s where I’m off to now: blanket city*!

Stay safe out there, my friends!

* Now I want to watch Community and imagine myself in Troy and Abed’s blanket fort. Maybe also the pillow fort, but less so because of the whole war thing.