Storm Night

Monday the 25th,
It wasn't bad here at all, not really.  Sure it rained and rained hard.   After our Sunday's rainy weather, I emptied an inch and a half of water out of the rain gauge this morning. This evening I poured another inch and 5/8(s) of water.  Our ground is saturated.  I'd love to do a bit of fertilizer on the yard - I'd like to spray a bit of weed poison on the yard - I'd like to saturate the yard with bug killer (the chiggers are thick this year).   But, nooooo. I have to keep waiting for the rains to stop.  No sense doctoring up the yard with this rain.
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Supposedly rain has been coming towards us all day today.  On radar you could see a mass of rain just west of us.  It missed us all day.  I understand bro Jim in Pottsboro had a tough day.  Not us.  I played ball with Oscar  (we had a good time) and I sat on the back porch reading the newspaper most of the afternoon.  I even set up my Sirius  radio and listen to Frank while I read - took a short nap.
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About 4:30, BJ came outside to show me da radar.  It was just west of us still but a cloud was moving up from the south.  We dogs moved into the house to play it safe from the lightning.  The guy on TV was showing an area near Fairfield - straight south of us - which has rotation, actually he had 2 different spots on the screen.    I watched as the rotation moved closer and closer.  Our weather alert radio kept interrupting our solitude with warnings.
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Had an epiphany.  My brain doesn't always remember what the "bright" things to do - are.  I turned on my cell phone and found an app called Scanner Radio. This connected me with the Navarro County Office of Emergency whatever  .....  On the radio (phone app) we followed the tornado - now down to one storm - north towards our lake.  One of the radio guys was hooked up to radar - Corsicana has a big radar unit in town.  Eventually, the radar feller told another guy that the tornado would cross Hwy 287 about on top of the "Big" bridge.   The other guy was east of the bridge and could watch it happen.
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The phone app followed the storm north as it crossed the bridge and headed towards the town of Kerens.  Instead of Kerens, it moved off to the East towards Trinidad.  It was fun ( in a way ) listening to the police call the fire dept. in Kerens and tell them to activate their alarm system.  After the storm came closer to Trinidad, it left our county. Navarro County signed off as it left.  I did not follow it anymore by finding another scanner to hear.  An aside:  the radar man reported this was the same storm that had been in Thorndale earlier.  That is pretty far away from here, nearer Austin.
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I am thinking that I will invest in a super duty scanner which won't rely on my phone and its cell tower signal for results - a battery powered one per chance with some bells and whistles.   [ Our weather scanner has new batteries = that is a good lesson to learn. ]   A good, high-quality scanner....yep.  Long story short (too late) we were able to follow the progression of the storm as it crossed Navarro County.  While we might have hidden in a closet with the 4 dogs, these gentlemen led us through the potential problem.
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Storm gone.   Emptied water gauge.  Picked a couple of ripe plums off our tree.  Fed the dogs.  Watched TV.   Tomorrow is another...................................
m3

misc. short

Rain,  endless Rain.   Today was dry.  I got to mow the lawn.  But the riding mower has a mud problem.  I had to have the spouse to come drive while I pushed it out of the mud.  
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The lake  is full - last week it went over the "full" mark.  We have lake trash along the shore line.  Really pretty bad.  People just throw anything in the lake.   I had a TV picture tube wash up.  I just couldn't get it out of the water; and, I don't know where it has gone now.   One tire,  a pink cooler, trees, a basketball, Christmas candy cane -- so forth.   
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I will finish with a brilliant observation.
Didja know that dogs love cornbread?  I'm tellin' you, they will lick their bowl forever and ever after it is eaten.  Dogs love cornbread.
more later when i am inspired
m

My hearing has been aided

Today I had a life style change.  Life style changes come at different times of our lives.  Retirement was a life style change.  Moving to Corsicana and the lake - buying my Mercury Marauder - when I bought my first pair of glasses with plastic lenses - diabetes - marriage - having to drink just diet Cokes - the list probably is endless.

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But, today, I have ventured into a new world - the new world of hearing aids.  At 10:07 a.m. this morning, the lady Vicki installed my 2 hearing aids and adjusted them to my ample ears.  You'd think - with my ear structure - that I shouldn't have any hearing problems.  They should be able to funnel all sounds successfully into the proper canal.

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Well wrong, ear wax breath.   All of those many years of excessive musical sounds - drummers - trombone players - crescendos - riding on a school bus with 50 rowdy teens and tweens.  Listening to the NY Philharmonic recordings of "Pictures at an Exhibition" -  I have ridden that horse and it has bucked me off.

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Bro-in-law Ernie called it my "War Badge."

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There are things to learn about wearing these things. Batteries, ear wax, inserting in the ear, so forth....

My set comes with a device which hangs around my neck.  It connects by Blue Tooth to my phone.  The phone rings; I push a button; no longer must I answer the phone physically as before.  

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My ears feel stuffed with the machines.  They itch too. Maybe over time, I will forget they are there.  A life style change.  Here we go Batman!!!

m