I have a lot to do over the next few days and no time for my morning research posts. 

I’m not a summer person. Not at all. I have my reasons. As a redhead who’s already gone through the unpleasant burn away skin cancer treatments, I need to keep out of the sun. There are years where our yard isn’t enjoyable for all the mosquitoes. I tend to faint if I get too hot. And, at my age I have all the heat I can possibly stand trapped right under my skin ready to flash on a whim. Nope, not a summer person at all. I’m hoping July and August fly by like June has.

We only have air-conditioners in the bedrooms. That’s just how this house is laid out. But I keep our house cool by opening and closing windows coupled with precise placement of fans — a choreography of sorts built upon nearly 30 years of trial and error. It’s basically blowing out hot air though an upstairs window while blowing in cool nighttime air downstairs. This generally results in a daytime temperature of 10° or more below the temperature outside. I have the system so finely tuned that people will actually step into my home and tell me how nice it is to walk into a house with air-conditioning on a hot day.

The problem with my house-cooling window and fan choreography is it all falls apart if it rains at night. So last night, or I should say in the wee hours of morning, I hear the rumble of a storm moving in. We have this nighttime-storm ritual here on the hill that goes something like this:

Wake from thunder >> take electric fans out of windows before they get wet>>yank the cord out of the wall first if they are>>run sleepily down two flights of stairs to unplug everything before lightning fries it>>try to go back to sleep. Try. Ha!

So last night I did just that, and then…my husband’s cellphone starts screeching. It’s 1:55 and we have a tornado on the way. I turned on the weather radio and sure enough, the tornado was seen 35 miles away and we’re in the projected path. The next 25 minutes we sat in the basement doing the math and listening to the robotic voice telling us that trailers will be destroyed and we need to take cover.

Tornadoes generally make me anxious. Too many close calls and a large enough imagination that unwillingly hangs on to the images of many a deadly aftermath. As you might imagine, nighttime tornadoes make me a nervous wreck. And sleep afterward? Not for me.

I sat there thinking of friends in the tornado path with me, especially those without basements, the whole while projecting my protective bubble around us all. The last ten minutes of this tense situation had the storm moving east of us one 30-second update at a time. I must have mentally shoved that tornado off its beeline to us! This afternoon I get to do it all over again. Another dangerous storm on the way. As usual, I’ll likely be without power and/or internet for a time. *sigh*

If power and internet hold, the blustery weather gods and I will return later this week when I share more about the Theoi Meteoroi.

Updating this post. The prolonged damp weather is gnawing at my joints. I’m taking a few days to rest my hands. I’ll be back with more weather gods just as soon as they leave me alone.  😉

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.
There are 78 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop

And one more for tomorrow:
All in a day’s work

There are now 77 entries to come.

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Today is Suzanne Rock’s blog day.
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/