Turning Back

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I checked the weather forecast, both an hourly list and an animated map, before going out to walk. There was a 5% chance of rain, and the rain clouds should have been diverted by mountains. Halfway to the creek, moisture was falling through the air. I couldn’t see it except on my glasses. It was a percentage of rain, not just a chance of rain. Truly, the droplets were about five percent of the size of rain! I started down the steep hill and turned back. Those silly clouds were watching me, and they were not to be trusted. Sure enough, shortly after I got home, the gutters were gurgling.

I took a photo from the front porch, which shows that a dogwood tree and a row of burning bush plants are gearing up for Fall.

092518 Gloomy day in early Fall.JPG

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

42 thoughts on “Turning Back”

  1. This reminds me of yesterday when there was no moisture in the forecast. I took an early morning walk through the woods, only to have a heavy mist settle in. I came back soggy. Alas, I enjoyed it anyway! It just took me a while to warm up and dry off!

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    1. I suspect there were no humans involved in the data I saw. Maybe I am entirely wrong, but I have the idea I was looking at machine-generated readings and maps. People couldn’t be sitting somewhere updating tons of figures every few minutes, could they??? I’m with you, though, in being glad I’m not a weather forecaster. If they start with the mess I saw, how could they ever be right???

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    1. But what do you do when the sky lies??? The clouds that float over the mountains of North Carolina are totally unreliable. I have seen the blackest of clouds do nothing but frown. Rain has hit my head when there was no cloud in sight!!! Truly! Snow has floated down from a blue sky! I need a truthful sky and clouds that obey the rules. I hope your heavenly realms are more reliable than mine.

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      1. I am reminded of an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies where Granny has a weather beetle to forecast rain. It is hilarious as she proves to the national weather service how her beetle can predict rain better than all of their scientific methods. LOL. Love that show.
        We have some trees that block our view of the distant sky but no mountains so probably a better view.
        I don’t think I have ever seen rain or snow from blue sky. One of life’s mysteries I guess. 🙂

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      1. We have listened to forecasters say that current conditions are sunny and we look out and it’s raining. We are only about a mile from their studio. We yell at the TV, “look out your window!” It doesn’t help.

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  9. I say I’m not going to trust the weatherman when he gets it wrong and it was not in my favor. We have torrential raining coming down right now, for probably the third time today, and severe weather on the agenda for later on tonight – speaking of percentages … our county has a 2% threat of a tornado. Despite our cool weather a few days ago, we had a hot and humid day today. Just noticed you have a new profile picture – you must have just changed it today, or since we last communicated. It is a nice picture Anne.

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      1. Thank you – and that was the end of the day when my eyes are not usually that sharp … I started earlier than usual as we had torrential rain in the a.m. – we had a tornado touch down in Monroe County and Gibralter … I was there on Saturday morning. Very scary. They said a stormy day and I had a project to get out the door.

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          1. Yes, that’s for sure – they have confirmed that it was an E1 tornado touched down in Gibralter; not confirmed for in Monroe. The pictures are amazing of the damage. I don’t like this either. I was worried last night when it got so close. People have said to me before that “this is what you have insurance for” … that is not my mindset and besides, I don’t have a relative, or even a friend where I could stay until the house was repaired and, if the house was not repairable, I do not want to start over again at 62 1/2 years old. Some people on the weather portion of the website were saying the stupidest things yesterday when they were warning us that the weather was ripe for a tornado – one buy said “I want a tornado” and another “bring it on!” I’m sorry, but that is just stupid and the same in the Winter when a large snow storm is predicted – people want a blizzard. I breathe a big sigh of relief every time severe weather is predicted and I am unscathed. But I was just there … granted it is 12 or 13 miles away, but that is too close for comfort – the tornado went 4 miles then stopped.

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                  1. I was just listening to the Mitch Albom show and the co-host was complaining parts of his TV show were pre-empted to talk about the tornado warning – he is from the “other part of town” (northern ‘burbs) … they had the hockey game on WWJ where I always listen, I have no TV, and WWJ had no “stream” either … I turned on the other radio station and they Mark Levin talking about the Kavanaugh hearing. The City sirens did not go off. I had no idea this happened until this morning … three tornados and that was just the damage from one of them. Scary indeed – now I keep thinking things happen in threes.

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                    2. I agree Anne. Enough already. Probably too long of a post that I wrote, but I had the angst, just as you might have felt two weeks ago with the Florence breathing down your neck and on the rampage. Now I saw on a friend’s Facebook site where the newspaper did a story on people in Detroit that complained because their TV programs were pre-empted for tornado coverage … they didn’t just run a banner beneath the show, they blocked it out. So it wasn’t just the one guy on the Mitch Albom Show. Better than the radio stations which tout themselves as “all news” stations and still ran their programs.

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    1. The view from the front of our house is quite tame. From the back we see the closest mountain, all the way to the ridge. The longest view is from the bedroom window, to the mountains several miles away. I wish you could come and see it for yourself.

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  14. I miss the seasons. So pretty. Colors ought to be exceptionally bright this year, don’t you think? I’ve heard that a dry followed by a wet season or the other way around determines how intense the colors are any given year. Have you heard that?

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    1. I read the theories of leaf color and promptly forget them. I am glad for the color, though. Someone in the local newspaper thought we’d have a good season this year. I wish you had seasons. I would certainly miss them if I didn’t have them.

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