Big Storm
I miss the big booms of Gulf Coast thunderstorms, with their white flashes and window rattling rumbles. The kind of storm that feels as though you’re right out in it even though you’re in a house. We had one last night. It felt close and personal. I realized just how close and personal when I went downstairs to make coffee and found the two grandkids and my daughter asleep on the couches. The storm had blown them right out of their beds.
Now the kids are up and getting ready for school, and it’s still raining outside because this is the subtropical gulf coast and that’s just what it does, mostly. I miss that. In the Hill Country these days rain is a cause for celebration because the lakes are going dry as are the rivers which look like tiny streams most days while the tiny streams look mostly like dry washes. It appears weather patterns are on the move and not in a pleasant direction.
I’m here today because I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon. Normally, I would have gotten up from my Hill Country bed, driven to Houston, seen the doctor, and gone home. But the threat of rain changed that. So, I came in yesterday, picked the kids up from their after school activities, went out to dinner, and then snuggled up with them on the couch to watch TV. It was a good night, until the god of thunder arrived. They’re up now, no worse for wear, and busy getting dressed, washed up, and ready for school. The terrors of the night, forgotten, mostly.