Post Tornado. Skeleton Trees.
Lots of noise. A strange, continuous roaring sound to the north of our location. Sirens everywhere. No actual sighting in my town. Confirmed visuals in Coal City to the South and Frankfort to the west. And as everyone knows by now, Washington, IL, out in the middle there. It is VERY windy now. If you turn on the TV to the Bears game in Chicago, you can see that our wind is extra windy. In case we forgot that our weather patterns here in the Midwest don’t just stroll in all leisurely-like, changing over the course of a few days or even hours; but prefer to burst out of the atmosphere like fireworks in the sky. Boom, flash, done. It’s dark. It’s light. It’s dark again. One minute you are outside just milling around and taking pictures, marveling at nature in all its raw beauty, and the next minute a powerful gust of wind crackles through the high branches of your fragile, breaking trees, pushing you, the garbage cans, and one of the plastic chairs you are standing next to, across the patio, almost giving you a heart attack. I literally covered my head because I thought a limb was coming down. I know the sound. So you decide you should probably go inside and close all the windows because it was 65 degrees mere minutes ago and now its 50 with all your blinds blowing inside the windows trying to come off the hinges. I have work to start and finish because I wasted my day on all this weather and I may slip in a drink or two to count my blessings tonight with my family. Say a quick prayer, send a thought, or help if you can, for our neighbors to the south. It’s getting dark now and the weather looks like it’s staying. Good luck. Stay safe. Winter is pretty much here. Only four or five more months until it’s spring. Cold hands, warm hearts. I think we say something like that. Later.
Contrails
On a perfectly clear, blue, still, Tuesday afternoon sky, in September. Last Tuesday. The 24th. I told you I was a bit behind. I have never seen them criss cross so perfectly. I even got a close up. And now, on to October.
Monday Was A Good Day
Two quick pics to keep this site interesting and I am going to get ready for work. Monday was a good day for my viewing numbers–Thank you all for following me!–and it was good for life in general. I felt very good and healthy. Very glad to be alive and thankful for life and family and a job that allows me to have days off during the week. Living the dream, for realz. Haha. Anyhoo, I also managed to accomplish most of my list goals, including shop for food for the fam for the rest of the week while I am at work, and laundry. Sort of. It’s not piled up on the floor, so it counts. I had a hawk in the backyard, first thing, yesterday morning, 7 AM. A hawk. Just sitting there, on the ground, under the bird feeder, scaring away every other species of wildlife in the area. No joke. Not one other animal-like creature, be it bird, squirrel, butterfly, chipmunk, rabbit, etc…, was in my yard the entire time the hawk sat there. And it was very quiet too. No sounds. Not even bugs and insects dare make a peep when the top-of-the-food-chain predator for our little suburb decides to pop a squat after a long night of hunting or whatever it was doing. Of course I got pictures. About 100. Wait until you see them! This is the enticing, hanging story line, that I am using to bring you back tomorrow. I have to sort the pics and pick out the non-blurry ones. And I truly do not have time. As usual, I am pushing my “wasting” time into my actual “need to go” time. If it’s a good night tonight at the old general store, I will post them later, if not, then in the AM when I crawl out of bed. This is the nice time of year for weather around here so everyone enjoy and I will be back. Later.
And Just Like That, Summer Is Over
And my vacation. And the BF’s vacation. And actually summer was over on Wednesday of last week. But I really was on vacation, and I did not post one darn thing to this site! I used Facebook to track a few things we did, but I tried to stay away from the technology if I could. Quick re-cap: The kids are both settled into high school so far, schedules, practice, even homework already. The BF took his motorcycle trip to “The Tail of The Dragon” (and got rained on every single day), and he’s home again. I had a stay-cation and accomplished about half of a list of things to do. And now I have work in a few hours. The BF goes back in the AM. Just a typical pre-autumn Sunday morning. The pic above is from when we fished. I’ll post the arty stuff later. Maybe. I’m not good at follow up apparently. I did manage to consolidate all my picture folders though, so I feel good about that. Everything that I want to use is in one tidy spot. And all my closets are cleaned! I know, go crazy on vacay. I told you, it’s not always an exciting life. Sometimes you have to clean closets. And it takes a week to do them. The laundry is done too. AND the socks are matched and put away. The socks. My giant, month-long, loose basket, of 4-people socks, is gone and done. My kids didn’t even have a spot for socks anymore in their dressers because they have been wearing them straight from the basket for so long. Anyway, I have to hit the shower. I am hoping for a quick and painless night on my first day back. Luckily, Monday is my normal day off, and then I can really prepare for the work jump with the next 4 days on. At least I have the weekend! Ok. Well, thanks for staying with me, or checking here to see if anything was happening, I will start daily again. As a special surprise, I found all my street money in one of the closets and that needs to be posted asap. We found a one hundred dollar bill last year! And birds. And benches. And wildlife. Birds and benches and wildlife, on my. So you can see, the thrill-ride continues. Let me also just put those extra fishing pics here for you right now. There’s not even a lot of them. And no actual fish. We didn’t catch a thing. Later.
And Meanwhile, Driving Down To Kentucky…
This was about 2 pm, Saturday, driving down, what I assume to be, I57, near the town of Mattoon. The kids are on their way to grandma’s with their dad. No one confirmed location for me, but the fastest way south is 57 from here. My daughter took this picture while it was happening. It’s a really good picture. Especially from a moving vehicle. She said it was only a funnel cloud when they saw it and she got a picture of it going back up. But I like this one. Very impressive. Then it hailed and rained so hard they couldn’t see and then it cleared. She texted, word for word, “It’s done now. Clear as a bell perfect now!” She sent a picture of the blind windshield but it’s just a grey square that kind of looks like smeary, foggy rain. This is the next picture she sent:
The girl takes good pictures. I almost feel bad that while the kids are driving through weather and tornadoes, me and the BF are at the liquor store buying all kinds of alcohol for the BBQ we are going to later, and then something for the rest of the weekend. Without children. Eh. Life. I took equally stunning pictures of the new wines I just bought to try out, and then later, post and share my opinions with you, good people. Let me end this with the last two pictures she sent me, because they are also really good, and she knows that I LOVE pictures of the sky and clouds. And you probably, secretly, like them too or you wouldn’t have kept reading! It’s OK. I thank you! Thank you thank you every day! It’s a peculiar world, this blogging, internet place; big and diverse, the way I like most things, but still managing to feel close and intimate, like we are all sharing this life through our words and images, the way we are taught that we could, if we lived in an ideal world. Hmm. Not one drop to drink yet, I swear it. Anyway, the sky…I’ll take the pics (or my daughter will), and you can look and move on. No one ever has to know. But we’ll know. Here is the first, with her comment, also word for word, “Look at that fat ass cloud.”:
And the last, below, is just one of the sky. I assume it’s off to the side. It’s very pretty for some reason. Good color/contrast and lighting I think. If I don’t get back here tonight, be careful all. Weather or not, Saturday in the summer can be tricky. Stay safe. Later.
Uh, Let’s Get Back To The Post List Before We Get Side-Tracked Again
These are the weird “pillow” clouds I took 50 pictures of, from just before the raging storm, last week. You can’t remember? Well, there was a storm. It was raging. I took pictures of clouds. Hmm. That sounds like almost every other post on this site every day. Well, then I guess we are all caught up. I tried to pick the best cloud picture I could. I spent actual, real-world time–minutes and minutes, maybe half an hour, going back and forth, through all of them. A serious, non-joking number of about 15 to 20 actual photos. Here’s the other one I narrowed it down to for posting purposes:
You can see why I went for the first one, right? It is clearly the better picture. Right? There is something VERY wrong with me. Right? Later.
One More Curve Shot And I Am Done With This. For Now. Promise.
Found it from last summer. You guys are in for a summer long treat fest now that I have found all my old pics from the old computer. Plus this is a good picture for my site to be stuck on if I can’t post any more today. Because I really really really have to go. I am going to be in massive trouble with my family if I don’t get the hell out of here. The End.
The Curve Challenge. So Many Great Shots Out There. I Need To Seriously Step Up My Game For The Future.
And we just lost internet for the last hour. The BF saw the AT&T guy doing something to the lines behind our house at the same moment our internet blinked out and he literally, got in the car and drove to go get him. Happy ending! He fixed everything! No problem.
So, I see all these amazing pictures and I am humbled. I am splashing around at the water’s edge of a giant ocean of talent. I need to swim out farther or go lay down in the sand and watch the adults play. Speaking of water…I have the underwater shots too. My daughter sent me something else I can use but I was having trouble getting it to download until this morning. That’s coming up later. I have to go get a cake and some chicken and head over to the par-tay. Sun is peeking out. Temperature is rising. Things are looking up. Here are some various curve pictures just to throw out there for fun and then I will stop and go back to my clouds and rain pics that still haven’t made it here because I type too much. Have a hot and steamy afternoon if you are anywhere in the Midwest right now.
Thanks Stevie! For #4.
My next favorite thing to take pictures of after birds and flowers and trees. The sky! Or more accurately: Clouds in the sky.
I saw this big space, just wide open in front of me, while I was driving to work yesterday, but I didn’t have the time or place to stop and take the picture. The sky is so amazing when all those clouds are up there, looking like they just got thrown across the blue, right in front of you, just waiting for you to arrive. You can see the curve of the Earth and almost feel the world turning under your feet, and you can imagine, for that one moment, that the road, and this life, can go on forever.
I can not be the only one who sees all that blue and just wants to keep driving until the highway ends and the water begins. If you have ever driven to the ocean, and I mean, driven straight on a road, for miles and miles, towards the end of dry land; Watching the sky change and seem to open up as you get closer and closer; And the air changes and the wind blows salty through your open window and you just know you are at the end of the world; Then you probably know what I mean.
But maybe that’s just me. I daydreamed of running all the way to work. And then I went in and forgot all about it until right now when Stevie sent me this to post here. All that from one photo. Pretty amazing. Thank you my lovely girl.
just shy of pretty 