The good, the bad, and the ugly

Yesterday started off in a very promising manner. I went to a friend's house and we were originally going to climb a small mountain with her four year old and pick blueberries on the top or go to a local state park and go swimming. There were a few pesky thunderstorms in the area, which were not conducive to either activity, so we had to come up with something else. We ended up going blueberry picking. I picked just a few. We also went out to lunch.

Then things went down hill. While driving home, I managed to drive into a thunderstorm where it was raining so hard that the wipers were on fast, everyone was going slow and a few had even pulled over to wait it out. This went one for probably 5-6 miles. When I got home, I looked at the weather radar and there was a long skinny storm lengthwise over the highway I had just driven on. Also, I was very tired by the time I got home. I have to stop all this having fun business and rest up.

Eventually I went into the back yard to check on my plants (call me weird but I check the at least once a day - maybe they need water, maybe there are flowers or veggies to pick, you don't know until you look.)

Then things got ugly. My giant flower pots of tomatoes and cucumbers as well as my huge rectangular self watering tomato box were blown off the stone wall they sit on and were upside down on the lawn. I almost ran for my camera to document this but decided my plants needed immediate emergency attention. I turned them back right side up and then had to lift them up on to the wall (but I need to be careful about lifting things and almost went and asked my neighbors to help - they were heavy and this involved a lot of dragging, and swearing), and then restaked them. they do look like they will be okay but I did lose about 20 little green tomatoes (and discovered I had one ripe one which I ate). (So my back is a little sore today and I think my arm is okay.)

I also went to check on my rain barrel. It had pretty much run dry as we hadn't had any rain in a while. Well, it is now overflowing and the overflow valve is clogged. That will be a challenge for later today.

Then things did improve a little as I actually got to talk to Walter and go to bed at a reasonable hour. And I feel like I got a reasonable night's sleep.