Weathering

Downtown JC 2007

I am writing this first bit on Wednesday evening; six o'clock and the temperature is 96°F, down from 98° about an hour ago. The wind is picking up and I hear thunder rumbles in the distance. I love thunderstorms and I've always been fascinated by lightning; the awesome flashes mesmerize me and the more the better. I've forever wanted to witness a tornado so I could rip my clothes off and run around hollering "Auntie Em; Auntie Em". As for hurricanes, I've never seen a full blown one the like of which folk along the US and Canadian coasts are susceptible and I never want to. These hills are not invulnerable to some of their violence, though. Hurricane Camille's fury devastated parts of Virginia back in the late 1960s and Hugo did a number on us as its diminishing eye raced directly across were I lived in a trailer back in the 1980s. That is the only time in all my years that I feared for my life due to weather. The remnants of Hurricane Opal came through here in the mid 1990s doing much damage to the electrical grid. Thankfully I was seldom on the internet in that ancient time therefore I didn't suffer too many computer withdrawal symptoms. Threatening thunderstorms also make me weirder when I am blogging.
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Now it is Thursday morning and I can certainly tell autumn is approaching; I awoke before daylight with a stuffy nose and a marvelous headache. Sinus season! My back wounds are finally healing and I had Carolyn pick up a tube of Gold Bond® cream for a continuing rash from the tape I was using; it has very much eased the itch discomfort.
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The Ford Escape has been a very good car for us; I say "car" even though Ford Motor Company and the US government considers it to be a truck. Other than routine maintenance, it has had to have only one repair and that was a throttle-position device which JJ replaced a few weeks ago. The Escape had 44,000 miles on the odometer when we bought it five years ago and it now has nearly 88,000 miles. Most of the miles are from either local errand, shopping, or medical related driving. The next most are from photography sessions and they include some mild off-road trips; the missus won't allow me to take it to the giant mud holes like I want to do. No wonder my playtime has become so boring. It has been driven on only two out-of-town trips, one to Atlanta and the other to Chattanooga. We hope to return to Chattanooga with it over Labor Day weekend.

The Escape has also become a bit small for us as our leg and arm joints become stiffer with age and infirmities. We would like to trade up to a Ford Explorer but we still owe another year on the Escape and with all the work Carolyn has lost, we will have to make do. The later model Explorers get a bit better gas mileage than does the 2002 Escape. The Escape has one of the best engines ever built; a Mazda design that was first introduced in the mid 1980s and modified by Ford in the 1990s as their base V-6.
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May your toadstone be powerful on this wonderful Thursday!
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