Greetings, my fellow port swillers!

We had quite the thunderstorm roll over Port Swiller Manor last evening. A prior, feebler line had come through late in teh afternoon, giving us about five minutes of rain and leaving Ol’ Robbo kicking his chair in frustration, but Ma Nature more than made up for it after dinnertime with an hour or two of torrential rain, high wind, and of course plenty of fireworks. She even knocked out the power for a while, thus giving our monstrously expensive and woefully underused generator something to do.

If the weather ape thingy on my phone is to be believed (and it is surprisingly accurate) this is the start of a pattern which will stretch well into next week. Good thing, too, as we were beginning to get rayther dry around here.

Ol’ Robbo loves him a good t-storm. Which is funny because I was quite frightened of them when I was a little lad. Couldn’t sleep at all when one came over at night but instead lay rigid in bed with the pillows jammed over my ears. However, unlike the late G. Gordon Liddy, I never resorted to tying myself to a tree in the midst of one in order to get over my fear. Instead, I just sort of outgrew it.

Which isn’t to say that I don’t retain a profound respect for the dangers of lightning, because I do. I still recall how surprised I was to read that a canvas-topped car like La Wrangler is no protection against strikes, this after I’d been driving her in and out of heavy weather for years. I still do, when by myself, taking a what-are-the-odds attitude, but back when the gels were playing softball I always insisted that we go shelter in the snack bar when a storm came over instead of getting in the car like everyone one else at the fields.

Anyhoo, it was a delight for the first time this season (I believe) to pour another glass, settle down in my comfy chair, and stare out the window as Ma did her pyrotechnic thing.

Wham, bam, thank you ma’am.

UPDATE: Speaking of which, I meant to report that we seem to have achieved peak Cicada Nation. They got off to a slow, subdued start due to cool nights earlier but are now hitting the decibel levels I recall from the last go-round. It’s like an original-series Star Trek phaser being continually fired.