Labor Day At The Lake – A Wash Out

For Labor Day we usually throw a dock party, but this year decided on a small scale and simple affair with just 4 guests and an easy meal of fajitas – beef and chicken.  Daughter, Wende, called and said she’d be coming over (+1), then SIL, Pat, and friend, Kathy, both advised they were bringing a friend (+2), then Wende emailed that she was bringing her housemates (+2).  My math said we went from a party of 6 to 11 and the weatherman advised that beginning early afternoon, we would have heavy rains as Lee passes through – sounded like it was time to adapt, so we prepared things to stay at the house, but with the option of going to the dock in case the weather prediction of 100% chance of rain was wrong.

We decided to get everything ready early so we could clean up the kitchen and house and still have time to relax and it was a good thing because at 11:30am, the power went off and Bev decided she needed to take Coco to the emergency dog clinic in Maryville.  No problem as the food was ready and I could clean up when the power came on – by this time it was raining hard and Wunderground showed it coming for many more hours – so the dock was out.

Kathy had left a message that she was ill and cancelling and at 1:30 the beef and veggies went into the marinade for a 4 hour soak and I still would have time to be ready if the power came back on soon.  I'll post about the meal tomorrow.

At 2:30, I called Wende and Joe and Carol and advised we were cancelling – Joe and Carol called back shortly before 3 and said if we were still going to cook, they’d like to come over anyway and bring the coconut cream pie - now it was really time to adapt.  The kitchen and Bev and I were both dirty but we said come ahead and Pat came on over as well.  Finally, the power came on at 5:30 just as I was beginning to cook so we didn't have to eat by candlelight and Coleman lantern.

After dinner and conversation, Pat left first and shortly returned to advise there was a tree across the road and she had to spent the night, but Joe and Carol with a lower car were barely able to squeeze under it and get out.

We awoke Tuesday morning to a 60* temperature and 10½“ of rain for the weekend.  I’ve often said “all we have to do to end a drought is have a lake party” but we really out did ourselves this time.

While summer, as the amount of daylight measures it, officially begins on Jun 21 and ends on September 21, most people seem to consider summer to begin on Memorial Day and end on Labor Day and I subscribe to this in my mind as well.  While this has probably happened in my lifetime, I don’t remember it – the Friday before the end of summer weekend, the high was 96* and the Tuesday after it was 66*.  I’d call that an abrupt end to summer myself, even though we’ll likely have some more hot days.

Did I mention we had a thunderstorm Saturday night that was a couple of shades beyond red on the weather map and it just deposited a bunch of leaves and small branches at our place.

But 125 higher, our neighbors on the hill had several trees down and had to cut their way out and since the road was open Tuesday morning, I suppose poor Steve dealt with that tree as well – he spent the weekend cutting trees in the rain.  Fortunately it blew everything away from his barn and hay shed.

The wind actually ripped the roof off his tractor, flipped this hay feeder over (it's heavy with very little for the wind to blow against), and took off part of the Greenback School roof - perhaps a micro burst.

The silver lining – this was a minor inconvenience compared to what the folks on the Gulf and East Coasts and New England have dealt with lately, and Coco seemed to be better the next day.  Sorry this was so long, but it was the short version.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  New Orleans – Days Three, Orientation

Two years ago: Darn !!!

Larry