Level Red Threat

All weekend and early today we knew we were in some sort of level red threat zone. Which I guess just means moderate. We have to be pink to be concerned.

I hope.

We had two random downpours during our work day, but otherwise it was business as usual on a Monday on Bluejay Drive. Then I felt a warm breeze and realized it was almost 80 degrees and the sun was out.

That lasted less than 10 minutes. I know this because I dragged Mr. Deck Chair to a sunny spot on the driveway and didn't get through a full chapter in my book! Both are safe inside now.

Then the evening news showed us getting the big crackdown while we're sleeping! I'm not sure what to rely on a this point. But I'm gonna watch The Voice while I can and hopefully sleep through NOTHING.

Be careful out there!

The Good, The Bad, and The Foggy

THE GOOD: My Vikings pulled off a win last night against the 5-1  San Fransisco 49ers. And Cousins was on fire.

THE BAD: I needed 70 fantasy football points from him to maintain my undefeated status in our fantasy football league at work. In the end, I got 21.02 points. A solid outing any other week when I wasn't getting knocked off my perfect season pedestal. Still, I'll take the REAL win over fantasy any day.

Also the bad, maybe. We had thunder, lightning, and hail in the middle of the night. As far as we know, the hail didn't damage anything. But our trees were greeting the morning sun naked. Just kidding, there was no sun today! Just rain.

THE FOGGY: When I got out of work, all the car windows in my level of the parking garage were fogged up. Yes, I've been driving for decades but I always forget the best way to de-fog the windows so I could get out of there. The answer is pretty much put your defrosts on high.

And tonight the foggy was settling on the front property. Maybe you can't tell. But as I type, it's already thundering and raining again. 

All I can say is I will take any and all of these any day over snow and ice and freezing temps. Yeah, let's not talk about that. Almost time to watch The Voice!

It's Not the Heat

I realize we're in a bit of cool spell in Wisconsin (before next week's heat wave). I was complaining until we received this text from Carter today with the temperatures down in Selma, Alabama, where they're visiting his girlfriend's dad this week.

FEELS LIKE 111? Wow. I can only imagine how humid that is. Like step outside and you're instantly sweaty and sticky... and stinky, of course. Now I understand why the old timers always said it's not the heat, it's the humidity!

Here we are at golf league tonight wearing long sleeves in July because it was cool and windy. Makes me realize this is a pretty big country we live in. In central Wisconsin we finally got rain last night. Mostly a ton of lightning, but some rain. My family Up North got hail, so I'm OK ours was just rain.

Still, based on my limpy hanging flower baskets out front, we need more. Or I just need to take a break between golf rounds and work and actually water them.

Meh. Summer priorities.

If you're outside, just be careful out there. Hydrate and appreciate this brief season we call summer!

I Usually Love Beer Cheese Soup

Yukon Cornelius: This fog's as thick as peanut butter! 

Hermey: You mean pea soup. 

Yukon Cornelius: You eat what you like, and I'll eat what I like! 

I'm with Yukon. I'm not sure why pea soup became the deciding gauge on fog. But in Wisconsin, we'd probably say it was thicker than beer cheese soup. Especially on this morning's commute. Yum, though.

I don't know if it's global warming or what, but we've had such extreme weather this "spring." Big winter storms and tornadoes and then last night I fell asleep to the sound of thunder... and hail. Ha. Craziness. So this morning's blanket of fuzziness didn't completely surprise me.

Made it to work fine and it was super sunny on the way home. Amazing what it's like when the fog clears.

Sort of like my after-work treat tonight...

During the "fog" I'm like a creature from outer space.

Then when the fog clears, my hair artist is my BFF!

What was your "you pick the flavor" soup today? I hope you found patience and realized when the fog cleared, there was something to smile about!

April Showers Bring... Hail

Apparently the warmest day of the year (so far) wasn't meant to bring sunshiny happiness to all. Instead, the high winds moved some storms out West into the Midwest in no time.

So even though the school bus took the baseball and softball teams north to Stratford. They were coming home before game time – thanks to rain and lightning. So I went to workout instead. While inside the gym, we could hear the rain pounding hard as the lights went out. Then we stepped outside and we were...

"Oh hail!"

No wonder the "rain" was so loud.

My car wasn't damaged. It just served as a hail holder!

Oh the drive home, it was like a normal winter commute with a path cleared on each side of the road. There was steam on the left side of the road. Sure enough, the temp had dropped 20 degrees to 43. The warmed up earth was in just as much shock as we were.

So I got a free night. Baked some cranberry bars and am catching up on Virgin River (one episode left to go of Season 3) and This is Us (last season but plenty of crying left to do). 

Just good to be home. I know there's wicked weather everywhere and more is coming this way, too. Be smart and be safe!

 

100% Chance of Something

 In Wisconsin, we've had our eye on the sky all evening because, well, there's a hundred percent chance we're going to get something in the way of nasty weather. Or what they call PDS – a Particularly Dangerous Situation.

Oh I've never heard of it either. 

A PDS watch is issued when thunderstorm wind gusts of hurricane force are possible. Yup. Don't have to live on an ocean – just Great Lakes – to have hurricane force winds, I guess. According to the weather dudes, the primary threats include...

• Widespread damaging winds expected with scattered significant gusts to 90 mph likely
• Scattered large hail likely with isolated very large hail events to 2 inches in diameter possible
• A tornado or two possible

So far this evening, there has been tornado warnings in two of the counties adjoining ours – we're in Wood County in case we make the news later – but it's just starting to thunder and lightning here at 10 p.m. So who knows. We may get hail, may be 90 MPH winds, may just get a light show.

Hopefully, the power stays on and, more importantly, no one gets hurt. 

Now if only they'd quit breaking into the live Olympics with these storm updates. Not convenient during a swim final, folks. Not at all convenient.

Stay safe, everyone!

Hail of an Ending

Well the month of May went out with quite a bang after all. That thunder we heard last night developed into one heckuva storm. A loud one. Very loud. 

Loud because pea-size hail was pounding our deck and every other outdoor surface.

It accumulated quickly like there was a sky-sized sno-cone machine hanging overhead. Yikes. Those power hanging flower baskets that had only been in my possession for some 5 or 6 hours. Darn you, Mother Nature.

Then today, when it was sunny and 70, the hail was still hanging around. At least until lunchtime.

Kind of looks like I have my own little glacier. Though I hope in 2 weeks we see ones a lot bigger than this. Global warming? Well, take a look at the 3 pictures above and let me know how that's working out.

What the Hail

Had my monthly back-crackin' appointment after work today. Was supposed to shoot photos of middle soccer right after that.

On my way into the chiropractor's office, it was sunny, hot and muggy out. When I came out, it was cloudy and sprinkling. By the time I got over to the soccer field... deluge! Players and coaches were running to their cars so that was that for that photo assignment!

I texted hubby and it was hailing at our house just 10 minutes away. That's because the storm on the radar picture above moved in. And quickly. In no time, the sirens were going off for the storm warning. And it was so windy, like 40-50 mph gusts, that I got pretty concerned.

But we our electricity stayed on. And didn't think we had any damage. That we could see in the dark.

The next-door neighbor's yard light pole blew over, though and is resting on the bushes between their house and ours. Hopefully, nothing dangerous or damaging happens with that over night.

I can't even imagine what people in the path of Hurricane Florence are dealing with. A hundred times worse than this, that's for sure.

Feeling grateful.

It's Friggin Friday the 13th

I've got a little taste of friggatriskaidekaphobia today. That's easy to say, right?

If you didn't already know... friggatriskaidekaphobia is the Scandi-hoovian version of the "morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th."

Friday is Frigga's Day. Frigga (Frigg) was an ancient Scandinavian fertility and love goddess, equivalent to the Roman Venus who had been worshipped on the sixth day of the week. Christians called Frigga a witch and Friday the witches' Sabbath. Throw in some other word origins and you've got yourself something rivaling supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Move over, Mary Poppins!

Actually, stay, Mary. We could use your umbrella. As I am typing, it is raining hard and thundering and lightning. Earlier today it was hailing, too. You see, it's not so much Friday the 13th that I'm afraid of – I already survived a black cat sighting (and petting) plus downed wires on my commute home – it's what this day and night might bring.

For now, rain. But... as temperatures gradually cool overnight, the rain will become a wintry mix of rain, freezing rain and some sleet. If I believe the latest forecast models, we could have a quarter of an inch of ice in the HEART of Wisconsin come morning.

So it was only logical that hubby spends the evening golfing and I spend mine watching Hallmark Christmas movies.

For real. No Friday the 13th of April fooling.

He met up with some friends at an indoor golf simulator. I decided to get at least one of my Christmas movies watched and erased from the DVR queue. I probably won't stay up for another one because, despite this crap-tastic weather, the 5K I am photographing tomorrow morning is still ON. Yikes.

There's always something adventurous to blog about!

If a Tree Falls...

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Typically this one of those philosophical thought experiments that raises questions regarding observation and our knowledge of reality. Here's MY reality...

"If a tree falls in the back yard and Robyn doesn't hear it, did it make a sound?" My answer is no...

So yesterday was the hottest day of the year around these parts. It got up to 93 degrees! After church, hubby went golfing, Carter went to the lake and I was multi-tasking. And by multi-tasking I mean catching rays while catching up with my neighbor Cindy AND bonding with our deck chairs. That is a lot of juggling there, but I am here to tell you, I handled it with finesse.

We had heard reports all morning of the "enhanced chance" of severe weather, but at the time, it was perfectly sunny and very, very breezy.

We only spent an hour outside and it really wasn't long after I came inside that dark clouds popped up out of nowhere and we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. I got a hold of Carter at the lake and told him to seek shelter. It was hard to know what was coming.

Well, it went just as quickly as it came. The winds picked up and I think the clouds were trying to rain but we only got a small smattering of drops. I thought it was over and then I started to hear the "ping, ping, ping" on the roof.

Hail!

I want to say it probably hailed for less than 60 seconds. I was so concerned about taking a picture before it melted in the 90-degree heat that I didn't realize I had bigger problems in the back yard.

It wasn't until Jim came home from golfing that we (he!) realized we lost some limbs off a tree.

The bigger one we got cut up right away. Then tonight, a chainsaw toting neighbor helped us with the smaller, taller one.

I guess Carter will have some firewood for an upcoming party he has in the works. In the meantime, I might have to get my hearing checked. Otherwise, those poor falling trees in the forest won't get the sound credits they deserve!

Rain or Shine?

There was a slight bit of false advertising from the sports complex Carter's baseball team was visiting this weekend. I mentioned yesterday they claimed that play continues rain or shine. I guess they seriously just mean "rain" and not hail or lightning.

As we learned today.

We got Carter up by 4:45 a.m. so he could be at the school and on the road by 6 a.m. for his first game. Jim drove down for that while I went to help at the multi-multi-family garage sale. Needless to say, rain plus lightning plus more rain does not equal a good day for baseball or garage sales.

While we were keeping things dry in and around the garage, I was getting updates from the turf -- which was soaking up rain instead of sunshine today.

First our 8:30 a.m. game got off to a late start because our opponent arrived late. Then, after 5 innings, lightning arrived. We were leading 5-0 and after some delay, they called that final.

I was done working the garage sale at noon-ish and caught a ride around 1 p.m. for our 1:30 game that was now delayed until 2 p.m. -- which ended up starting at 2:30 or so. Maybe, just maybe, if that game had started on time, we would have seen all 5 innings.

As it was, we got 3 innings into it before lightning reappeared. We were leading 4-2. I stood under a shelter awhile, then sat in the car to try to dry my very wet shoes, socks and feet. It rained. It poured. It thundered. It lightninged. It hailed.

That game never resumed.

For 90 minutes of that undecided delay, we adults did our best to stay dry, while our apparently ADD kids did their best not to be bored. How did they do this? They took turns with their opponents acting out "skits" (for lack of a better word) in front of the umbrella-ed crowd.

Not kidding.

When you think about it, if they were willing to do improv entertainment in the rain and occasional lightning, why didn't they just play ball?

I guess we won't complain, since we ended on a winning note. Actually we could say we were technically undefeated for the tournament! Good, soggy start to the season!

I'm just glad to be home with dry feet and my bed warming up as we speak. Carter may take a day to dry out. Then we'll play on the home field Monday.

I guess rain or shine.

Heat, Hail and Honey

You know you're on vacation when you don't shower for the day until 1:20 p.m. the first time... and then have so much fun outdoors, you need 2 more showers later!

It was a hot one again today. Temps were in the 80s but the heat index (that lovely humidity formula) put the temperature at 97 by early afternoon. Uff da!

I actually spent the morning indoors in the A/C getting some "chores" done that I never got around to yesterday. I sat out on the deck a little bit reading my hometown newspaper before putting it in recycling and got hot pretty quickly out there! It did rain a bit but that just steamed things up later.

Took shower and hubby and I went into town on a mission to find some corn on the cob. Thanks to a hot tip from a neighbor, we found a stand of "candy corn" in a parking lot on the main drag. Probably farmers from Minnesota. For some reason they come over with good sweet corn long before ours (as in people who actually grow it, not us) is ready.

Stopped at the store to grab some steaks and a watermelon and had ourselves a real summer supper! We wisely ate indoors -- not necessarily because of the heat, but because the hail was falling like crazy and bouncing around. It didn't really develop into much of a storm though and thankfully it was done before my second cob of corn!

This evening, while Carter watched Rocky III, Jim and I took a walk around Lake Wazeecha. Thanks to the hail, it was a bit cooler out. Saw plenty of water puddles from the hard rain but, knock on wood, no mosquitoes. The only animal we saw was a big ol' turtle who was not making any better time than we were. Thankfully.

The trail around the lake is just about a 4-mile path so I had a good hour of bonding time with my honey. Not sure why we only find time to do this when we're on vacation.

But I like it!

What the Hail?

Spent some unexpected quality time with the family tonight in my basement. Just an ending to a Sunday that saw quite the mixed bag of weather!

Was super sunny and warm this morning and early afternoon. Today was the Royal Event -- Assumption School's annual big fundraiser and entertainment day. The three of us joined a whole bunch of friends in the 3-mile walk to raise money for a scholarship fund we support. It was actually warm enough to sweat. Thankfully there was a nice breeze. And it was especially pretty along the Wisconsin River where the pink Hopa trees are in bloom.

Fast forward to 2 hours later. We are still at the school enjoying good food, good ice cream (that's in its own category), fun games and nice company. The sun has all but disappeared now. And the clouds are getting pretty dark. We decided to head home by 3 and got home just in time for the first major lightning and rain storm.

The sun came out a short time later and I made sure I got my running around done (grocery shopping, etc.) because we knew another line of storms was headed our way by supper time. Of course, as things tend to go, I have pork chops in the oven and they are set to get done in about 16 minutes when we hear the Tornado Warning for a storm that should hit us in 20 minutes. Should I just shut it off or do we grab it when it's done and bolt for the basement?

We chose plan B. There's something a little disconcerting about eating on TV trays in the basement, watching the radar on TV and seeing the storm get closer and closer, while hearing rain and hail pounding outside. Let me tell you, pork chops and corn are not my idea of the "last supper." Good thing we survived.

We know from early reports and hearing the many sirens that emergency personnel are dealing with something somewhere relatively close. But this is the extent of our "hit"...
A whole lotta hail! Nothing damaged or broken anywhere that we can tell.

Some of it was pretty big stuff! I would say mostly pea-sized but some bigger ones like this one...

And the bigger than eyeball-sized one...

And this almost golf ball-sized one that melted pretty fast while Carter was finding a golf ball for comparison.

We also got a small lake in our driveway. This has only happened when there's been a ton of snow melting in spring. Never like this from a rain storm!

Had some branches down in back. This one actually was driven right into the ground by the wind and was sticking up on its own.

This one was, too! Tells you there was some wicked winds blowing out there, too!

These 2 big branches were about it for tree damage. So not major at all on Blue Jay Drive anyway.

We're feeling lucky. And hope God kept everyone else in the storm's path out of harm's way as well!

Freaky Friday

Nothing surprises me about weather in Wisconsin anymore, but it can still be a bit freaky.

After having tornadoes touch down to the north and south of us earlier in the week, we did not need to see "Wind" in the forecast. And frankly, if the winds are steady at 25-35 mph, do we need to add in "Gusts"? Enough already.

I noticed from my window seat at work that the wind was whipping around quite a bit. But when Carter called after he got home from school, I was surprised to hear the wind knocked over our basketball hoop! Thankfully, it it did not break the hoop or pole or shatter the backboard. It could have been worse.

Then, moments later, my co-worker's spouse called and they have trees down in their yard! So I was prepared for the car to be fighting headwinds on the drive home but was not prepared for the sight we were driving into, heading west on Highway 54. The air and skies ahead were kind of brown -- almost like you'd see in a movie about the "dust bowl." Surreal. Then driving next to the farm field and seeing dust fly like you would if someone was plowing -- only no one was there, that was freaky.

Nothing else seemed out of order, though.

Picked up Carter, went out for a fish fry, then it started hailing. We stopped briefly to visit Jim's parents in town, then it was sleeting on our way home. And still windy.

Why do I care? We have approximately 13 hours before the starting gun goes off for Carter's first 5K! At this point, he'd rather go to bed tonight and stay in bed. Who wouldn't? I think my persuasion will have to follow the lines of "Your future races can only get better" or something like that.

I mean we have to do it no matter what. Neither rain nor sleet nor wind nor snow can stop us from getting that T-shirt!

Hail of a Day

Day 3 of the car show dawned so hot and sunny, I made the mistake of declaring that the weather gods were certainly smiling on Iola this year. That lasted awhile anyway...

It was a busy enough day but my mission was to get out of there by 3 p.m. to get to Carter's second tourney game at 4:45. Yes, while all this excitement at the car show has been going on, in my other parallel life as a wife and mother, we've had basketball (3-day camp this week) and baseball (weekend tourney) on the mind. In fact, we all had to get up early this morning because Carter's first tournament game in Nekoosa began at 8 a.m.

About the time hubby emailed me in the early afternoon to indicate they got smoked 10-zip, he also said it was pouring rain in Rapids. I couldn't believe it since it was sunny in Iola. But it didn't take long for the storm to rumble across Portage County and into Waupaca County. We battened down the hatches of our vending trailer and I was on my way to the car at 2:30.

They made an announcement about the impending storm but one look at the clouds and people were making a mad dash to get out of there! As a result, we actually had a bit of a traffic jam in little old Iola.

I'm not kidding! When I finally turned south and got about a mile south of town, I ran into a another one. This one was slow-going traffic that stretched nearly 3 miles to Scandinavia. By the time I got to Scandinavia, the rain was pouring and winds were howling. After seeing a tree limb on a side street, I pulled into some friends' driveway and waited it out a good 10 minutes. When it felt like it was letting up, I hit the road. Good thing I waited.

Turns out I just missed driving in the hail! That would not have been fun!

We didn't get much at home, though, but it hit in various points around Rapids. The weather was wicked enough in Nekoosa, too, to delay the start of Carter's second game. So as it turned out, I didn't miss a minute of it. Good thing, too!

Carter had a double, a ground out and a strikeout. Thanks to some homers by his teammates, though, the 11-under Rapids Rage team won 7-6! Whoo-hoo! We get to play tomorrow!!

Our friends' son Nate is filling in on the team this weekend for 2 boys who are gone. So we have him staying overnight tonight. It's hard to come off all that excitement and say, "OK boys, go to bed so we can get up early and do it all over again." Hopefully we can!

I know I for one, will welcome getting into my bed any minute now. And sleeping in well past the 5:25 a.m. alarm that has been torturing me for 3 days!

Once I catch up, I also have some more show pictures to post. But I better set a good example for the boys and get to bed...

What the hail?!

Central Wisconsin was hit with quite a storm while I was tucked away safely in "Tornado Alley" down in Texas.

Last Thursday, sirens blared, schools shut down and businesses closed for the afternoon in preparation for the wicked weather.

Not too far away, funnel clouds reportedly touched down and twisted through fields and communities. In Wisconsin Rapids, the storm came in the form of softball-size hail.

No, not golf ball or baseball, but softball. It's no surprise that huge chunks of ice falling from the sky dented cars and siding, and crashed through windshields, lawn chairs and roofs. It's a miracle no one was killed.

It's also a miracle, or pure luck, that the storm completely missed our house. We live only a few miles out of town and the storm system simply skirted around us. We didn't even get rain.

Last night, after my stepson Clay's baseball game, we stopped over at Jim's parents' house. My mother-in-law collected some balls of ice and kept them in the freezer for "show and tell." I grabbed some hail and held it in my hand. It really was as big as a softball. Unreal. You have to see it to believe it.

To see more photos, and I think it's worth your time, check out the photo galleries and reader submissions on the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune Web site. Visit www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com. The golf course shots are cool, too. There was even a hole-in-one or two!