Wilderness Wednesday: Preparation

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animals, faith, humour, nature, photography, snow, squirrels, storms, winter

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Happy Wednesday!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Texture

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clouds, nature, Photo Challenge, photography, storms, Weekly Photo Challenge

“Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy – your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself.” – Annie Leibovitz

For more Textured Photos, click here.

Something Wicked…

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clouds, family, photography, storms

“Heck.” Jim sniffed north, Jim sniffed south. “Where’s that storm?” […]Will let the wind ruffle and refit his clothes, his skin, his hair. Then he said faintly, “It’ll be here. By morning.” –Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

In our case…it was Friday night. All week long, we had been experiencing a heat wave. A “heat wave” is defined as three or more consecutive days with temperatures above 32C. With the humidity, it felt more like 40+! It was an intense few days, the kind that when you walk outside, the heat seems to suck the air from your lungs. When you move your body, there is no sensation on the fine hairs on your arms. Some guy on the news baked pre-packaged frozen chocolate chip cookies in his car. I wonder if they were edible…

When there’s intense heat and high humidity, and then a cold front moves in, there are thunderstorms. I’m not going to explain what causes thunderstorms, but if you’re interested, click here. I already know hot + cold=ka-boom!

 

Thursday, we saw a lot of cumulonimbus clouds roll by. They’re the big ones that can bring torrential rain, straight line winds, and flash flooding. It rained briefly for us, but the sun kept on shining so once it floated past, we went swimming.

 

Friday was a different story. It was hot and a strong, unrelenting wind blew all afternoon. We knew “something wicked this way comes”. It arrived right around suppertime, just as we were heading out the door.

By the time we got to the restaurant, it still hadn’t rained but the wind was so strong that as we raced to the door, small bits of gravel power-washed our legs and filled our shoes. It rained eventually – sideways – and then it was mostly gone. Part of the town had lost power but we were okay.

I got a call from Big Guy around 8:30 p.m. His city had been hit hard – he would be working all night to clear trees from the hydro wires. Just the kind of news a mother wants to hear. We sat on the couch and watched the lightning over the corn field. Tall black clouds rolled by quickly along the horizon…and then the setting sun tried to peek out one last time. It created this eerie glow across the whole sky.

I received a text around 11:30 p.m.: “One down…29 to go”. Sunday afternoon he posted on Facebook that he had worked for 12 hours, crews were still going, and would likely be going day and night for several more days. The clean-up in my home town continued into Sunday afternoon. Little Guy and I stopped by my Grandmother’s house to drag downed branches to the curb…in our Sunday clothes. Something wicked came and thankfully, it didn’t remain!

Murphy’s Law

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humour, murphy's law, storms

Murphy’s Law! I’m posting late today because last night we had thunderstorms that rolled through…for hours, and Little Guy kindly used up my laptop battery. I was so busy running around yesterday, that I gave myself permission to think about today’s entry, and to write in the evening. It felt so weird being “disconnected” – I couldn’t write, I couldn’t place a business order, I couldn’t read my daily update from my Mom. It was terrible!

This morning the sun was shining and it’s warm, so I decided to take my car in for an overdue oil change. After all, if I don’t maintain it properly, it will have a good excuse for abandoning me on a day when I need it most. And I have quite a few upcoming engagements where my personal presence is required! I walked home (since I’ve eaten so many goodies this week and haven’t walked in 2 weeks) just as the clouds started to roll in. I fully expect to be walking back to the garage in the rain (hopefully no lightening), and with Murphy’s Law on my side, I will likely be stopped by a 200 car freight train when I reach the tracks.

Murphy’s Law is an adage (short but memorable saying that holds an important fact of experience and considered true by many) or epigram (brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising or satirical statement). In short, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”. I have lived under Murphy’s Law most of my life. The other part to it is – “if it can be done the hard way, I will find it”! Growing up, my brother (seemingly) sailed through life, while I hit every pothole, every incline, and every annoying sharp little pebble on the path. Not much has changed!

That being said, it’s suddenly Friday. I have a lot to accomplish today, but lack both a car and motivation. There are no thunderstorms on the horizon…yet! Tomorrow night is a big night – we have planned prayed, prepared and practiced in preparation for this evening, for a prolonged period of time. Our worship team (which was recently reduced to a group of 3) is reuniting for a contemporary evening service. I’m excited, nervous, and waiting to see what will go wrong. Will the babysitter get sick? Will Big Guy’s car break down and he won’t make it (he’s our sound guy)? Will I suddenly lose my voice, break a finger, develop a giant zit on the end of my nose? O ye of little faith! I know I should just trust that everything will turn out ok in the end (if it’s not ok, it’s not the end, right?), but I’m a “glass half-empty” kind of person and I’m not going to attempt to change that today.

The morning is half over and I’m still not sure what I’m writing about today – but since this has evolved – I’m going to go with it rather than procrastinate any longer. I will work on the powerpoint for tomorrow night, and hopefully, practice one more time. If Murphy’s Law is in effect, I might as well be prepared!

Here are a few more subsets to Murphy’s Law for your consideration – Have a great weekend!

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

You will always find something in the last place you look.

The other line always moves faster.

When a broken appliance is demonstrated for the repairman, it will work perfectly.

In order to get a loan, you must first prove you don’t need it.

Anything you try to fix will take longer and cost you more than you thought.

No matter how long or how hard you shop for an item, after you’ve bought it, it will be on sale somewhere for less.

If you fool around with a thing for very long you will screw it up.

Everyone has a scheme for getting rich that will not work.

Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral or fattening.

Murphy’s golden rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy’s_law