Thunder and rain

 When the storms started at 5:30 this morning, I turned off the alarm that had been set for 6:30.

No early morning hike for us today.  It's still dark and rainy, with lovely thunder.  

We have to have lights on in the house right now (at 9:30 am) because it's so very dark outside.

It may clear out later, but now we also can't mow the lawn today, as we had planned.

This has been a very unusual summer for central Oklahoma....and, while I am grateful that we have not had many 100 degree days, it makes me worry about what we are in for as the seasons change.

Last fall and winter's catastrophic weather events are still VERY fresh.

This is especially true when I am out of the house, anywhere in the area...and see all of the trees that broke off at the tops from the inch-thick ice in October, and all of  the crepe myrtles and shrubs that died from the never-before-seen-here arctic cold in February. 

I definitely have PTSD regarding power outages, too.  Any time the lights flicker, I feel deep anxiety.  Living without power or water pressure for two full weeks was a nightmare. 

Anyway, yesterday was a very productive day at Dragons' Roost.  We got up and grocery shopped early, and were happy to find very few people were out and about yet.  By "early," I mean we left the house at 9 am and were done, and home, by 10:30.

The Covid numbers in Oklahoma are skyrocketing, and I wanted to do the shopping in person one last time, before we go back to relying on the shopping service.  I wanted to stock up on some things that were on sale.  

Our shopping service never seems to find the things that are on sale, and I also think they substitute items un-necessarily in order to "fluff up" the check-out amount.

It's comforting to know that Costco and Target have reinstated their mask requirements....we still have to go there about once a month or so.

We have a large package of KN95 masks, the ones that are supposed to be the most effective, and will wear only those going forward.

It's a month until our trip to Illinois, and we went ahead and booked our rooms for the road up and back.

My brother in law has canceled the big gathering we were going to have, and we all feel very good about that.  

We can have a small gathering with my family (everyone is fully vaccinated), and I can see my friends one on one, hopefully outdoors, since we won't be booked solid going to museums, restaurants, ball games, etc, due to Covid.

This trip is all about seeing people we love.  We HAD hoped to get Dave to the Art Institute for his first time, but that's probably not a good idea.

And, now that the Cubs team has been gutted, we have no interest in even thinking about the ridiculously high cost of bleacher tickets, not to mention how stupid it would be to sit in a crowd of yelling fans.

Once the storms move out today, we will be dealing with high 90s, and an intense heat index due to the humidity level. The dew point will be in the 70s after all of this rain.

The next several days will be get up and walk at sunrise if we want to get outside at all.  It will be too hot the rest of the day.

Wishing anyone reading this a good week.