Wind, Lightening, Leaks, & Hail - a Typical March Fare
Monday, March 13, 2006
[6:49am] It had been a weekend much to Collette’s liking, according to the weather. And from Saturday night until Sunday night, she thrilled over the skies.
But it began with Saturday and Rose’s photo shoot. It went very well that Saturday morning, set in the garage with an old powder blue mattress for backdrop. And as the day increased in warmth, OLeif went back home to work on the pictures and Collette hitched a ride with Mom and Rose to the concert. They brought along an umbrella in the humidity of the afternoon, although it wasn’t necessary at the time. The fluffy cumulonimbus continued piling in the west as the concert stretched along for two hours.
Annamaria was looking quite distinguished in her deep blue gown which tended to sparkle in the light from time to time and a crystal necklace which sparkled even more. Carrie had also done a lovely job with her hair, piling it high on her head. Mr. English’s father had come, as well as Mrs. English’s parents, and there were mounds of flowers for Annamaria at the end of her concerto, mostly consisting of yellow roses. The Hobcoggins were present as well (as Wallace played in the orchestra), as well as Goofy Nickels (who played in the Cadenza orchestra), and the Silverspoons, minus Theodore. Cake and punch was served afterwards in the heat of the building, as the air conditioning did not seem to be responding properly. And the storms continued to pile in the west.
Later, as the evening began, Jimmy, OLeif, Collette, Pepper, Rose, and Molly met up at the church to discuss the fundraiser dinner. First, the girls explored the old house on the farm which happened to be unlocked. Although it was smaller, the upstairs seemed to almost perfectly match a sort of Green Gables, with the windows looking far off into the fields, and trap doors everywhere into the eaves for storage and hideouts. Then they walked over to a muddy pond which had come into existence with the recent rains. And as dark came in, they moved to the barn. Collette leaned out the open window to watch the magnificent bursts of lightening across the fields and to feel the great winds which blew in later. The rain then poured and they headed back to the house for a movie night and pizza, which also included Wally, Curly, and Giggles.
Sunday, Wallace joined them for lunch at the house where they had beef sandwiches, fries, and discussed things such as sneezing out one’s eyeballs. And at youth there was much commotion and not much done over the fundraiser dinner, aside from a silly skit and the like. But in the heat of the afternoon, the winds also came and the sun poured in magnificent waterfalls of light through the white clouds of the early evening. It was quite beautiful. And as OLeif and Collette departed to drive Wallace home, Ashley-Sue came to pick up Magnus and Molly. Taking Magnus’ arm, she waltzed them off after rubbing both of their fuzzy heads, simultaneously.
And the storms did rage that very night, so from 12:36 in the morning till around 2:30, Collette and OLeif stayed up and watched the radar. Most exciting. Finally, OLeif was able to see that though they had been in a sort of tunnel – tornado warnings north (and sometimes the south as well) and flood warnings to the south, that the storms would hit, but the severity would stay to their north. And so they went to bed just as the storm blew in and Collette fell back asleep to the sound of hail falling and thunder cracking.
In the morning, there was no visible damage, despite the reports of nine people dead in Missouri from the tornadoes which had ripped through the night before, which was terrible, of course. The total count – 146 tornadoes had been sighted across seven states that night.
Back at the house, Collette saw that the beautiful blue glass garden globe in the Marbles’ front yard, had been smashed through on one side. And several of the little Italian street light bulbs had also been broken in the Snicketts’ backyard.
“Carrie and I were up way late, waiting for it to come through,” Mom whispered, as several of the kids were still asleep. “And then when it started hailing and raining, well, come here and look.”
Mom led her back to Carrie’s room.
“Carrie went back to her room,” Mom continued, “and we heard ‘Oh no!’ Water was pouring from there,” she pointed to the ceiling light, “and…”
“And it fell all over my keyboard and music,” Carrie said grumpily, coming into the room.
“So we were all in here holding buckets and catching all the water,” Mom laughed.
“Looks like Dad was right about the roof,” Collette noted, recalling how Dad said the roof was in bad shape Saturday night after he had taken down the Christmas lights.
“And before the storm came, I was outside checking things out,” Carrie continued. “I had been talking to Naboth Rutabaga before on IM who said, by the way, that Cyrano-Loup is getting married in June. And while I was out there, I felt this little bite – this tiny piece of hail. And then I started going back inside and another big one hit my foot. We were all thinking the big van was going to get it good. It didn’t, unfortunately. It’s like the thing that wouldn’t die.”
And in the kitchen, Rose removed from the freezer – three nicely sized hail treasures – roughly shaped, yet smoothed, like three icy rosettes.
And for the rest of the day, the wind blew strong and brought in very cold weather, perfect for flying kites, if it had only been warmer. Carrie-Bri headed to the shooting range with Paige Popp and her friend in the morning, before leaving for work. A young bald man with an earring and a vehicle with 20″ rims (as Rose said it) came to appraise the house that afternoon, and stayed a mere ten minutes to measure things. Carrie-Bri and Rose had Linnea give them a boost out Joe’s window so the three could go hide out in the green slug until he left. So at least the van served one good purpose for Carrie as a last resort to avoid delivery men and the like. And Linnea crunched giant cheese curls while singing along with Frances and his choir tape of Ezekiel and dry bones.
“The evening light streamed down between the hundred-and-twenty-seven pillars of the colonnades so that the rich reds and golds and blues shone with an unearthly brightness, each pillar the gift of a king. But the center of the temple was roofed in cedar, dimly lighted by lamps; and the air was heavy with incense and the smell of sweating humanity.”
– Twice Freed, p.48