Monday, June 09, 2008

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

...the gray skies are boooooring. (and scary, too.)

If there was a way to search through all of the Wisconsin bloggers in the blogiverse, I bet 99 percent of them blogged in the last couple days about the weather.

Lame topic, you say?

But there was nothing lame about the rain that came down on Saturday. When the news stories report that cars were floating away in intersections, and people were swimming to safety...it's time to sit up and take notice.

Seven Wisconsin counties reported tornadoes. In the streets, 200-pound manhole covers were flipped like pennies from the water pressure in the storm sewers below. (I didn't write that...I read it in this story. But isn't that great imagery?)

We had serious...serious...water in our state over the weekend. I was down in the Milwaukee area to spend some time with my sister and her family, and we watched the day change from blue skies to storm clouds to sheets of rain. When the storm sirens went off, we hit the basement, and the reservations we had for dinner at a Japanese hibachi place were put on hold.

My nephew still had to go out, though, to play in the band for his high school's graduation. Attendance at that event served as his final exam. With all the flash flood warnings and tornado warnings, I thought having graduation that day was pretty stupid. But I'm not a school administrator.

After hearing the storm sirens go off at least three times, and waiting out several waves (heh.) of rain showers, we decided the worst was over and went for Japanese food. We didn't float away.

My niece got a kick out of playing The Catching Game, as she called it...where the chef flipped shrimp off his spatula into the air for us to catch in our mouths. (yes, I caught mine.) And I got my sushi fix...so all was good.

The drive home was mostly uneventful, except for a 10-minute stretch halfway home where you couldn't see much, but you got one hell of a car wash as you drove. I don't drive with my hands at 10 and 2 very often, but I know when to hold on. My "reward" for making it through the downpour was a pretty spectacular lightning show from time to time on the rest of the drive.

Ten minutes of white-knuckling it during an hour and a half drive certainly isn't a whole lot to complain about, as it could have been much, much worse.

Yesterday it stayed gray throughout the day, and Mother Nature thought it would be a fun trick to play to make me spend most of my day either opening or closing my windows.

I'd open five or six of them, and sit down by the computer or the TV, and it would start to rain. So I'd close my windows, and five minutes later, the rain stopped. Soooo...I'd open them again. I repeated this process more times than I'm going to admit in this blog entry.

But, umm...

...sunny and 70, anyone?
I'm all for it.



"Don't knock the weather;
nine-tenths of the people
couldn't start a conversation
if it didn't change once in a while."
—Kin Hubbard

7 comments:

  1. I’d have thought you’d like this weather. I know what band I automatically think of when it comes to constant depressing rain… :)

    Let me tell where else the rain effected Saturday….yep, Time Warner Cable Field @ Fox Cities Stadium. Fortunately for me and two other good kids the tailgating was only interrupted to the tune of one beer inside the truck then it was back to the lawn chairs.

    The Nation was delayed on his return route from golfing in Horicon since a tornado touched down in Beaver Dam. He opted to head east to Port Washington and double back versus playing storm chaser.

    But then in the middle of the third we also saw a similar lightning show and then bang, buckets. Without the T-Rats to clap for or umps to boo at we stood in the concourse and did one of our favorite things…swill moose cups of micro brew.

    After a near hour they called it as it wasn’t going to stop they said, and it didn’t (which worked out cuz the Rattlers were down 6-1 anyway). Boooooo rain!!!

    Ended up in a buddy’s garage listening to an 80’s weekend (“Tainted Love, Soft Cell!!” Boom, another one for THE KID) radio show until the wee hours.

    Speaking of lightening…

    When there's lightning
    You know it always brings me down
    Cause it's free and I see that it's me
    Who's lost and never found

    I cry out for magic
    I feel it dancing in the light
    It was cold, lost my hold
    To the shadows of the night

    No sign of the morning coming
    You've been left on your own
    Like a Rainbow in the Dark

    By the way, excellent usage of “white-knuckling.”

    Blog on Vach…Blog on.

    Where's Gerber???

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  2. There is a town called Saukville near my home that peacefully rests on the banks of the Milwaukee River.

    Now, after endless days and nights of rain, Saukville IS the Milwaukee River.

    Sorta' biblical, though... the town is kinda' shady.

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  3. Oh, come on now, TheKid...You're not gonna start in on the Crows bashing like those two other dorks I know, are you?

    When will you people learn what good-quality music is?

    I gotta tell ya...reading a comment like the one you posted makes it abundantly clear to me that you miss the football blog; you're pining away for the football blog; you can't..wait..to get back to the football blog.

    Am I right, Mr. '80s/'90s Lyrics Encyclopedia?

    I might not let you play this year. And I've got about THIRTY good reasons why!

    (yeah, right. the day I ban you from the football blog is the day they stop playing professional football.)


    Jeff...I hope Saukville returns to a somewhat normal, albeit slightly soggier, state.

    If not, you might wanna hone your ark-building skills, and go and offer your services.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You know what I love? Talking about the weather. Seriously. I don't like talking on and on about the weather like my mother, but I feel very awkward if a conversation doesn't include a mention of the weather. People around here don't have that skill and it drives me crazy.

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  5. I wished i'd have read your response before I saw you Saturday.

    As evidenced by my willingness to get an Eddie Jones jersey and run around all giddy-like when you win the lottery and the Crowes play "the boat house."...i was just funning, I have no problem with your boys.

    And yes, i do pine for the football blog...badly.

    And just to clarify, i did have about 8 or 10 pints Saturday with you. We did have something called a Badger Special which included both a big arss'd burger on top of a big arrs'd brat patty. And i did finally settle up on last year....i think...???...

    Good to see buddy.

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  6. SBW...Nice weather we're having, eh?

    TheKid...Now I gotta get the Crows up there, just to say I saw you run giddy-like.

    I think we settled up, but I'm not sure. If you don't have a receipt, then we probably didn't settle up.

    Do you have a receipt?
    Hmm? Do you?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hmmmmm???...Pookie???

    How 'bout a Fresca?!

    ReplyDelete