Thunderstorm Season

Where we live we tend to miss all the extremes of weather. However, today we are in the centre of it all. I love thunderstorms and this one is a good one. We had about an hour of strobe lightning making us feel we were in a film like Close Encounters or War of the Worlds. This short video was just before the rain started, which became torrential.

Then the rain hit for about half an hour flooding everywhere.

Since then we have returned to strobe lightning and are about an hour in. According to the Met office, we will be having these storms until late Friday. I’m not complaining as I love this weather.

It’s always sunny 3 days to the future…

I have moaned before about the rain, but it seems relentless and has followed us to Northern Ireland. Every day it’s raining, then the sun comes out for about 30 minutes along with every dog walker, then rain, rain, and more bloody rain. Yesterday, I decided to go to the town park and walk around the 56-acre lake with the girls. The rain had stopped for about 20 minutes, and I thought all looked good. Dropping M off at the home first. I drove down Windsor Ave, pulled into a parking space by the gates, and the rain started, only a few drops. I thought it would light spits, but as I was about to get out, the heavens opened, but not just rain, hailstones and giant raindrops, and it battered down for about 10 minutes solid. Eventually stopping I got the dogs out and we did our 3.5km walk, getting back to the car for it to hammer down again.

I got back to M’s dad’s house and it was dry there, no rain at all, this is only 1.75 miles away, WTF! Then later that evening as mentioned in a previous post it pissed down again whilst the car roof was open. Thankfully the heat of the day has finally dried the seat out.

This morning, I took the dogs to Craigavon North Lake for a walk and, wouldn’t you know, it started raining as we drove there, thankfully stopping for us to walk in it. Again it has been on and off all day. Currently, there are huge black and dark grey storm clouds in every direction, so I am not holding much hope to it ever ending.

The thing that really gets me is that looking at the cameras back home, the sun is shining, there is not a cloud in the sky, it looks like a lovely day, and has done for the past few days. On checking the thermometers (yes we are that advance) the temperature is 22.3 degrees in the garden, so very pleasant. However, on checking the weather forecast, Saturday when we head for home, the weather improves here, and back home the rain starts, basically, the crap weather is following us, like the cloud above Charlie Brown.

Wet arse!

I went with M to the home to see his mum. The dogs were with us as his dad had gone out, so I was not going to leave them alone in the house. Whilst at the home I left the girls in the car, the double sunroof left open to its full extent, and of course the windows down half way too. After ten minutes M’s mum wanted to see the dogs again so I brought them in, leaving everything open.

5 minutes pass inside the home and I happen to look out the windows, and the heavens have opened and all of a sudden it was monsoon season again. I ran through the home to the car park, jumped in, started the engine and closed all the windows and roof, but the inside was drenched, and so was I. Whilst sitting there waiting for the roof to close I had sat in the rain-drenched seat, leaving me with a wet arse. The passenger seat got the worst of it due to the direction of the rain, but all the same, everything was soaked. I mopped up what I could with the cloth I had in the car, then when back at the house used three towels to try and dry it all, but I think we are set to have wet bums for a few days.

Deep joy!

Bloody Rain…

I don’t know how many UK readers I have, but I am sure if you live in the North as we do, you are sick of the rain by now.

We live on the coast, and we also have our own microclimate, however, for the last three weeks, we have had nothing but rain, rain, and did I mention? rain! We have had so much that we have managed to fill up the large water butt in the garden by putting out a few buckets to catch the rain. The butt is full, a 50-litre bucket is full and so are 6, 10-litre buckets, and as I look out the window, I see it is raining still. The garden has flooded and needless to say, the dogs are not happy at all.

We managed to get them out in some light rain for 20 minutes this afternoon, and yesterday evening for another 20 minutes. Whenever it slows down to a light shower lots of our neighbours and the village are out trying to walk only to be thwarted ten minutes later by a torrential downpour. Harper hates the rain, so as soon as it starts she is dragging me towards the car or home depending on where we are. Mazikeen, on the other hand, does not care and is happy to get wet, muddy, filthy, and all in all messy.

We have been told that we have had 2 months of rain in a day, which explains a lot. Sunday afternoon was the only time we have managed to see the sun, and it was very hot, and didn’t I look pink after sitting in the only sun for all of half an hour. The rain is set to carry on for the next few weeks, but will we get to see Aquaman? or is it too wet even for him?

A few years back the UK took on that much rain that looking at England from a plane it looked like we were thousands of island, that summer was cancelled, and it looks to be the same this year. I think we need to move it Italy, sun, good food and let’s face it, what is not to like there!

So on and on the story goes…

An ode to an odd day…

M flew out to visit his parents yesterday morning.  We had to be up at 4:45 in order to get him to the Airport for 6 am check-in.  Not a hard feat but, all the same, I would have prefered to have been in my pit for a little longer.  The journey to the airport was its usual run and nothing new, however, as soon as we arrived the rain started.  M does not like flying at the best of times and in bad weather, he hates it.  The disabled assistance at the airport is my saviour, I handed him over to the company and from that point, they look after him for the duration of his journey, at the other end they collect his baggage and hand him over to his friend, thus no worries for me.  I returned home well after sunrise in torrential rain.  I was not aware that a so-called Indian summer included monsoon rainfall.

The rain, it never stops, but I do have places to go!  Dog walking, a rather wet affair, the girls were not too impressed in the end, well, I say the girls, I really mean Harper, she is not a lover of rain, however, the pup carried on like it was a normal thing, a Springer is only at home digging in the dirt.

I finally managed to get out and get some groceries, and of course the obligatory treats for the hounds.  But then the day seemed to grind to a halt, constant rain battered the windows and a feeling of being lost in my home started to consume me.  I needed something to do that I could relax with, yet my mind became vacant of all thoughts relating to that.  I have a mountain of things I will be doing whilst M is away, but I really wanted to try and relax over the weekend.  The mind-numbing silence was broken only by the persistent squeaks from the dogs’ toys.  Then the inevitable, the squeaking stopped and the deafening sound of silence was all consuming.  My only solace, Spotify!  However, even the throws of death metal indispersed with softer rock started to invade my physical space.  Finally, M called and a sense of normality prevailed, at least for a short while.

The Last Night of the Proms was on TV, as I have always watched it, last night was no exception, thus I opened a beer, sat on the floor so the animals could claim the sofa as their domain and mentally transported myself to the Royal Albert Hall amongst the throng of the Prommers.  But as with everything, it is all over too soon and my bed called to me.

The night was filled with the dogs cuddling up to me, or a more precise description would be lying on me, and Mazikeen feeling it appropriate to rest her very hairy neck and face across my nose and mouth, rendering breathing an impossibility.  A massive bed devoid of souls on M’s side.  This was a new fresh hell to add to my continuing saga.  Finally, they relented and let me sleep until 5:20 when it became toilet time for the pup.  Deep joy enveloped me having to drag my carcase out of a warm bed to stand naked in the cold of the hall whilst she did her pee, the rain still pouring and the winds whipping everything.  I managed only to stay in bed then until 7:30 when the dogs had finally decided it was time to rise.