Oh No, Don't Let the Rain Come Down

This evening a thunder boomer blew in to Dahlonega, a rowdy one carrying copious rain. I opened the sliding glass door and the living room window to settle in and enjoy the storm. Within minutes, rain blew in both openings, so I scrambled to shut them.

I sat down to Facebook, on my unplugged laptop, and had just typed 'We're having a glorious' when my cell phone rang. It was roomie, on his way home from work. As we discussed the ferocity of the storm, I stood in the living room looking out the sliding glass door.

Suddenly, there was a crack and a boom, and a tree fell across the deck right in front of me. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, wind lashed the trees and torrential rain fell from the sky. The crown of a white oak lay across my deck, while water poured where the gutter had been ripped from the house.

In the middle of freaking out just a tiny bit, I hung up and realized that Bugsy was out there in that maelstrom. I opened the door to call him, then slammed it shut against the rain. Running to the basement, I threw open the door that is sheltered by the deck above. I heard the franticity in my voice as it competed with the storm. No Bugsy.

To make matters worse, cherry-sized hail began falling. My poor little one.

I ran back upstairs and saw his tail flash in the corner of the slider, then was gone. He wasn't at the front door so I raced back to the basement, where I'd left the door open a few inches. No Bugsy. I called and he shot out from under the car, soaked to the skin and frightened to the core. He ran in and up the stairs, but stopped and cowered about three steps from the top. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around him like a body turban, drying him and comforting us both .

Just then, Randy came in, almost as soaked as Bugsy. He went in his bedroom and water was pouring from his ceiling fan and from the middle of his closet door. In the insanity, it hadn't occurred to me to check there for damage. But damaged it was. We called Pat, our landlord, to give him an update. Around 9:00 p.m., Pat's son-in-law, Daniel, came by to look in the attic. And, boy oh boy. We have several holes in the roof. That oak tree did quite a number.

It's hours later and still raining. So far, there's just a round wet spot on the kitchen ceiling, no break through. And the dripping seems to have stopped in Randy's bedroom. For now. I sincerely hope the insurance company gets here first thing in the morning so they can get it patched, and fixed quickly.

Remember me blogging a couple of months ago about them cutting all those trees around our house? Pat had asked them to take this oak down, but they didn't. It turns out the darn thing was hollow inside. What I thought was lightning and thunder, was the tree cracking and slamming in to the roof. If they'd taken it down then, this wouldn't have happened. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

It was quite an exciting evening, one that will not soon be forgotten. Certainly not by Bugsy, who got a much-needed bath. He's all soft and curled up in the chair beside me, waiting patiently for me to go to bed. We're all safe. And that's a good thing. Now it's late. And way past my bed time.

Beach Jones

My new design is brought to you courtesy of the enormous beach jones I've got going. And thanks to a slight case of ADD. I bore easily and quickly and I was so done with the old one.

So, don't get too fond of this one either, peeps, because, well, this too shall pass. Besides, I want to completely redesign by blog so that it looks more like a writer's blog.

But probably not until I finally make it to salt water. I have reservations for a week in New Smyrna Beach, Florida at the end of August. Egads, that's two months away! My only saving grace? Time flies. Even when you're not having fun, which I AM.

I wonder if I could sneak off for a five-day weekend in SoCal over July 4th weekend? That would be heaven. And a great way to celebrate my birthday.

Hmmm...



Pictures from top to bottom (including the title pic): Pelicans feeding in Dana Point, CA; near sunset at Zuma Beach in Malibu, CA; surfers at sunset in Solana Beach, CA.

Stuck No Longer!

Did I tell you I got a new laptop? It's paying off already. A few days ago I posted about being stuck. I am stuck no longer. Thank you to Eric and Roland for unsticking me. And to Angela and all the participants in her Next Top Title Blogfest for commenting on my title and propelling me forward.

On Friday, I shared that I upped my word count to 14,054. Today I made it to 16,285. That's the most words I've written in one day in quite a while! And I'm not in pain like I would've been had I sat at my desktop all day. Yeehaa!

So, all in all, I've had quite a productive weekend. I put in several hours of census work. Visited my sister, Carolyn, down in Hiram and saw Sex and the City 2 with her. Helped my friend Ginny, and her husband, Dave, in Douglasville. I unveiled the title of my manuscript, Churches, Chickens and Chi-Chi's, and got some great feedback on that. And I met some new writers and got to help them decide on titles for their own works in process.

Lastly, I moved my own novel forward in leaps and bounds. What a fiercely awesome weekend.

I wanted to end it on a perfect note. With another post. To say thank you. To all of you. I'm so glad you're out there. I'm so glad you're in my life.

Here's a song for Sammy, my main character. She's back home helping take care of her mother and in need of some serious rock and roll. Turn it up. The louder the better.