Caught in a Whirlwind

That would include activities going on around here; weather changes; thoughts... you name it.

We have gotten the three boys ready for school, which started up this week. T2 and T3 began Tuesday, T1 goes Wednesday. T3--First Day of School for this one, how exciting! He is quiet in new situations. I was very happy for him when he told me, holding up an awkward configuration of three fingers, how many new friends he made. T2 is enrolled in this particular school for the first time. He was worried about being new. He has made four new friends so far--all boys. T1 picked up his schedule, which is printed out in columns. Only one column is understandable--the subject title, thank goodness. This week is the first week for everyone--the parents have a meeting at T2/T3's school Thursday. Whew.

This past Saturday marked the beginning of the season for the choir in which I sing. We had a jumpstart all day rehearsal. What a great day...I had car keys and no passengers! Woo-hoo, I was out and about, in the pouring rain. Pouring!

Which brings me to the weather whirlwind--literally. As the television weatherheads are fond of saying, a lot of weather came our way Saturday and Sunday. Apparently, the tropical storm/hurricane from the Gulf of Mexico blew far enough north to create some weather (haha) for central Oklahoma. Storms ensued, and then it even formed an "eye" and did lots of damage. Sudden floods; at least 6 people died, some from being washed away in their cars; many areas without power, even yet Sunday evening. There were neighborhoods in our city without power that long, but we seemed to have been spared this time.

Here's what we found Sunday morning (click to enlarge all photos--although some look better at the smaller size--ahem!):



The branch fell down right on the spot the mister had parked his car overnight. Fortunately, he had to leave for work in the weeee hours of the morning. He said it was in the worst part of the storm, which would be hard to tell, in my opinion, since the worst part seemed to go on the entire night. Did I tell you it was absolutely pouring rain? It was the maple that dropped that branch. It's hard to tell--d'you see that other tree with the pinky red things all over it? It's hogging the limelight, making it look like it belongs with the trunk of the maple. Don't let it fool you.

You can see this dead branch in the above photo, also:

This dead branch is part of one that housed a woodpecker family a few years ago. The branch reminded me of a musical instrument. Because of its size, I thought bassoon, but something about it also made me think, flute. Maybe this is the type of flute that would produce those whispy, papery tones...

I'll bet you thought this was going to be all about plants, right? Just wait. Adding to our busy morning Sunday, our mama cat, Drea, (more of her story another day) decided to bring one of her kitties out of the closet:

We couldn't tell exactly what she intended to do. She was very concerned about this kitty, but she would walk away from it to eat or drink, then run back when he cried loudly. Drea wanted to play a little, but then would be drawn to minister to her kitten. I thought it was funny she would walk away from him, leaving him all along in the middle of the floor. The walkway, really. On the other hand, since when does a cat care whether it's in the middle of a walkway?

Drea would pick up the kitty, move him a couple feet away, then sooth him. This kept up throughout our morning preparations to leave the house. It occurred to me perhaps she just needed a break--a babysitter, maybe?

This is Drea's female kitten from her previous litter. She doesn't quite know what to make of this little guy. The baby kitty is barely two weeks old, Soleil is four months old. I know, I know. Don't even ask how old Drea is! As I said, I will tell the CAT story another day. Did you notice the little guy's eyes are open?

I have another theory for Drea bringing out this kitten. You know how, in nature, the way things work is "perfect"? Everything happens as it should. A difficult concept for us humans, who are ready to "fix" anything that is "broken." Growing up on a farm, I saw this in reality, over and over again. Well, I thought perhaps this kitten might be particularly in need of tutoring. The mama cat would watch this kitten crawl away from her, and wait for him to find his way back. She would move him, walk away, then come back. This repeated several times. You see, this kitten looks exactly like one of its possible sires, which would be the mother's, errr, brother. So I thought, maybe... nature's Special Education program?

Okay, this is now just about as long as one of my emails, so I should get to the publishing part. Oh, one more survivor of the storm:

Ah, there we go. My eyes feel better now.