And Then the Skies Opened

After a long period of drought -- the longest in recorded history, I heard a few weeks ago -- we're suddenly getting rain, and more rain. And then some more. We need it, no doubt, but the problem is that when the ground is so far, the rain doesn't soak in at first. Instead, it flows into the roadways and floods everything. Today it's been raining since about nine this morning, with on and off thunder and lightning. Yesterday from about four in the afternoon until about ten at night we were bombarded with one tornado warning after another. None hit here, but it seems there was one in Crescent Beach, just south of St. Augustine. Today has kind of been the same, with fewer tornado warning. We've had lots of heavy rain and thunderstorm alerts.

Fortunately, I had no real reason to leave the house, so I didn't. I ran out in a light-rain moment to get the mail, but otherwise stayed inside and got a lot done. That's fairly unusual for me on a rainy day; usually I want to sleep all day. By noon I had posted all my new assignments online and graded any late work that came in since my last round of grading, called four new non-profit organizations, set up a year's worth of volunteering for my group with one of them, and paid all my bills. By two, I had changed the beds and washed the sheets, and also set up my dinner to cook all day in the crockpot. I did more cleaning today than I have in the past two weeks, including going through mail (my big weakness) and sorting out my desk. I have fewer than half as many papers sitting around as I did this morning, my floors are clean, and my furniture and counters are polished. I feel so productive!

Since I was getting so much done, I decided that I'd reward myself with a little vacation. So my next "get-it-done" thing was to use some points from my vacation club (the timeshare) to go to Orlando for two days next week. I love that place! (Not Orlando so much, but the resort where I stayed before and will stay again.) It won't cost me anything except the gas, and my plan is to take some paperwork with me that I've been putting off. I'll alternate work with fun. I just can't get it done if I am distracted by things that need to be finished around the house, and I think a change of scenery will both relax and inspire me. If I'd been thinking about not having my class on Monday, I may have gone somewhere farther away, but this will probably be better. Tomorrow will be my get-everything-together day (and I have to also choose textbooks for fall). And now it's hailing and storming again, so that's all for today. Sweet dreams and happy days, wherever you are . . .