Our Flaky Weather, and What I Wore for Cinco de Mayo

Sure, because Hawaiian clothing fits right in with a Mexican festival. Not.

I considered doing the "Full Frieda" but went for hair flowers instead. I can't wear a centre part without looking stupid.

 I made up for it with a stack of bangles on each arm.

Then, I unintentionally flashed my tits all over South Omaha

Had I checked this photo before leaving, I would have seen that from that angle, "June is busting out all over". And here, it is only 5 May!

Looked fine from this angle. Dear me, I've got to do a better job keeping the pontoons under wraps. Yes, I do function as a flotation device-large breasts are naturally buoyant.

Outfit Details:

White eyelet dress-Goodwill
MOP earrings-Sears (I think) a couple years ago
Bangles-everywhere
Blue Hawaiian (gawd, a Blue Hawaiian sounds great) jacket-thrifted ages ago (like decades)

Now, let me tell you what it is doing outside.

 

We're having one hell of a thunderstorm, as I type. This comes on the heels of an unseasonably warm day that reached 97 degrees F. (that's like 35 C or something, I think). That was the official temperature-our thermometer was reading 100. Anyway, I've lived here long enough to know that following an unseasonably warm spring day, we get thunderstorms. This one has been going on, and on, and on.

Getting Danny off to bed, I looked out the window and noticed the rear window open on Mr. ETB's car. I sent him out to roll it up while seizing the opportunity to explain to Danny why you need a spouse/partner/good roommate/helpful neighbor. If you live alone like a hermit, no one will tell you to roll up your windows. Probably best to stay home with mama.

There is so much water out there, I won't need to worry about the plants for weeks. The last time I saw a downpour of this intensity was driving through Chicago about fifteen years ago. I had Mr. ETB in the car (I think we had driven out from Boston to visit family in Illinois) and suddenly the rain came down (it was dark) so fast, and so heavy that you couldn't see the highway, but it wasn't safe to pull off to the side of the road either. I kept going trying to follow the headlights ahead of me until I spotted a familiar intersection and pulled off. If I hadn't spent four years taking that exit to and from school each day, I wouldn't have been able to navigate it-I was driving on little more than memory. We pulled into the first gas station I spotted. It was the closest I've come to seeing him cry. Seizing an opportunity, I pried my fingers from the steering wheel, and waved my hand for emphasis declaring it, "No big deal for a Midwesterner." It was a terrible storm, and to this day Mr. ETB still uses it as a scale to compare weather by. "Not as bad as that night in Chicago", has become a useful way of describing thunderstorms.

I'm glad to be inside tonight. Fifteen years ago you could still halfway expect people to be paying attention to the road-I'm not sure I'd want to be out there with someone texting, eating dinner, and trying to fiddle with the GPS in a downpour.

We have recessed windows upstairs with wide ledges covered in aluminum siding. Each clap of thunder vibrates through the house, and the rain pelting against it sounds like someone shooting gravel from a cannon onto my windowsill. The house sparrows like to sit there during the day, peering in at me as I make the bed. I hope they use the ledges to take cover this evening, because I'm not sure they could manage being out in this.

Danny was having trouble getting to sleep with all the noise. He's not troubled by weather, which is surprising for a child that went through a tornado, if anything it just made him more interested in weather systems. Still, interesting or not it is difficult to sleep with all that racket. I sat with him for a bit, and tried to distract him by singing all the rain related songs I could come up with. Let me tell you, after the obvious ones like Riders on the Storm, and Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head-it gets difficult! We came up with a good playlist for future thunderstorms though:

I Wish it Would Rain
Who'll Stop the Rain?
When the Levee Breaks
I Love a Rainy Night
Singin' in the Rain
Purple Rain
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Rain Rain Go Away

He was asleep shortly thereafter. Faced with the threat of my continued singing, it was the rational thing to do. The weather radio went off earlier. I do hope this quiets down soon, and that my plants are all still there in the morning.