A Summer Thunderstorm

As I was driving home from work on I-10 (kids, don't try this at home), I took a picture of a rainbow.  If you look closely, you can see it is a double-rainbow.  That rainbow has deep meaning.  In Genesis Chapter 9, right after the Great Flood, God tells us that the rainbow is a token, a sign, a reminder of a covenant that God made with Man and all living creatures that He would never again destroy the earth by flood.  

As I drove eastward, the skies were increasingly dark.  I was hoping that the rain would hold off.  I had things to do and that put a damper on my afternoon plans.  Have you noticed, by the way, that the days are getting shorter?

I quickly changed out of my work clothes and put on my 'farm' clothes.  Tricia and I quickly walked out to the barn to do the afternoon chores.  It was about 6 pm.  And then, the bottom fell out.  It rained cats and dogs and possums and nutria rats.  The wind blew like a hurricane.  The thunder rumbled and the lightning popped too close for comfort.  All of a sudden the lights went out in the barn.  The fans grinded to a halt.  

She is very hard to see, but Rosie is waaayyyy out in the rainy pasture.  We had to go get her.  I ran back to the house to get my rain jacket.

We were protected from the rain by the tin roof.  Raindrops falling on a tin roof is a very relaxing sound.  If I had a hammock, I could have fallen asleep.  We gathered the eggs and killed time waiting for the storm to pass.

And then.  It did.  The ferocious summer thunderstorm passed on by, bringing its torrential rains and winds to our neighbors down south.  The thunder still rumbled in the distance, but the clouds began to clear out and the fresh scent of rain and wet leaves and broken branches filled the air.  The sun, with a last gasp of effort, cast its rays over the rain-soak landscape as if to bid farewell to the hot summer day. The chickens rushed out to find bugs and spiders that the storm had blown out of the trees and onto the ground.

Rosie tried to make up her mind whether she wanted to walk through ankle deep mud to go out and eat the wet grass.

She finally made up her mind to trudge on out there.  The storm dropped the temperature to a reasonable level and she was able to enjoy the cool air and eat lots of grass before it got too dark.  We made our way back to the house, but the electricity was still out.  In fact, four hours later, went I went to bed, the electricity was still out.  Tricia told me that sometime during the middle of the morning, the power came back on.  She got up and went to turn out lights.  I slept right on through it.