Of Lighting Strikes and Electricity in the air~~~~

Dear Darklings,

Well I am working a lot of afternoons and a few full days this week and next, vacations winding up and school starting for the children of a number of staffers, so I'm covering for them.

David and I have been going over what special and specialized things I do, he is familar with it but I needed to fill him in on the details and the dear man keeps bringing me my Hazelnut mocha latte to keep me going.

This is going to be a very good fit and a very good solution to what had been concerning me and the "powers that be", I feel very good about it.

Monday night was a very exciting night, our weather channel had put up warnings of lighting strikes along the coast and slowly moving inland. Generally we are concerned;   this was dry lighting and the vegetation around here and in the hills is tinder dry.  This state and all around has a lot of grass and forest fires because of these dry conditions.

And in the the Cities of course, such strikes can cause power outages,  I'm afraid that Doyles' recommendation to purchase a generator for the refrigerators and freezer is going to be acted upon, its just a question of having it safely connected between them.   Doyle said he'll talk to our electrican about what is best and how to do it.

But Monday night we could feel the electricity in the air, so Sis and I looked out the highest window in the house that faced San Francisco and we saw it, a number of electrical strikes.   They were magnificent and frightening at the same time, we watched for several hours, some of the strikes were thin and some were just powerful, we tried to do the timing trick to determine how far away they were and if they were coming closer but we barely heard any booms so it was hard to guage.   Sis thought that the cloud formation we were watching was moving more south of us and then East.   We didn't have anything to show the wind direction.

The trick is if you see a strike, start counting "a thousand one, a thousand two" etc, the number of seconds before you hear the boom as sound moves slower than light.   It gives a general idea of how far away, usually a mile per second but that maybe incorrect, but if the strikes and the booms are coming closer and closer together then you know the storm is moving towards you and when its on top of you.

Tuesday evening the electrical charge was greatly diminished, although the weather reports were still having lighting watches but it was more East of us in the Tahoe region and south.  But still exciting.

Yesterday after work Sis came by to pick me up since she had several clients in the city, so we drove slowly, and with the traffic it was slowly, home, we listened to the "Big Band" music on her Sirius radio to put us in a relaxing mood, she suggested we pick up something for Dinner since Doyle would not be home till late and before we could eat we had to get a present for someone we both knew, there was going to be a party Friday night, and the theme was 'silly presents'.  

I said "But if a foolish, silly present be useless isn't that cluttering up their home?"  and she agreed, "But not if it was something usable"  she remarked.     I suggested coffee mugs or cups with silly sayings on it, maybe a total of 4 or 6, "Why not?" said Sis, so with that we went to our favorite TJMax store  and we found a number of coffee mugs with silly or funny sayings, it was hard to choose so we finally bought 8 of them,  and got a box and paper to wrap them in. 

Sis said "They can always re-gift them"  yes, really it is the thought that counts as they say.

But TJMax also had some Halloween goodies out,  we went crazy over what was there, but I said lets not be foolish, it has to be something we can use for indoor decorations,  but it was hard and we were getting a bit hungry, but I saw it and Sis agreed----- a large ceramic pumpkin in off white with a black stem and leaves with the saying carved into it that said "Keep Calm and Haunt On"   perfect for the entrance foyer.

Sis said "That will give people something to think about" and it can be left out all year round.  

Sis phoned in our order at our favorite Chinese resteraunt and said we'd pick it up in 30 minutes but we still had to go to the store for milk and bread, so thing that always needs replenishing,  while there I got excited again finding a speical Halloween edition of "Taste of Home" magazine with goodies for food and decorating in it as well as several of those speical booklets that you see at the checkout all full of Halloween goodies.   Me pass them up??  Not on your Tombstone!!  I have one shelf just dedicated to these types of cook and decorating books.   One never knows what kind of inspiration one will get.

After that it was Chinese food, picking up Belladonna and home.   After dinner Sis and I had fun perusing our finds and seeing what we could make for our Halloween party, its never too early to plan Darklings, Never too early.

Later Darklings