The Partially Eventful Weekend

The Fourth of July was a generally good weekend here. It kicked off on Friday with the reception opening the Heritage Festival and beginning the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the city. I was fortunate enough to limit my official engagements this weekend to just a quickie at the reception. We handed out a neat covered wagon doodad to those who attended the reception:

 

  

 (Of course we also gave the attendees a wooden nickel.)

After the reception, L and I headed on over to our friends for a BBQ. Brats, burgers, red hots, and sausage off the grill plus shrimp and fresh fruit and chips of many kinds plus dips and vegetables - then topped off by pie and pistachio cake. Luckily we were seated in the garage, since the skies dumped yet another unseasonable rain shower during the evening. It was a great time sitting around and eating, talking to friends, and generally just relaxing. It is especially poignant because the male half of the couple is going to be having some pretty serious spinal surgery later in the month and it isn't clear when he'll up and about following the surgery. (We've known each other since grade school - so I know he doesn't handle being on bed rest well. This will be interesting, to say the least.) At the close of the evening, L and I walked home and sat back to let all the food settle.

The 4th itself was pretty much a day to ourselves except for XXX's therapy. So we mowed the lawn and trimmed the bushes and (of course!) pulled the weeds. Got cleaned up early in the evening and journeyed over to Mom's where the MIL, L and I had a nice 4th of July supper. L and her mother went to watch the city fireworks display while Mom and I visited and I got ready to bring the leftovers home. On the way home, I saw some of the municpal fireworks display just as yet another unusal rain shower set in. Got home in time to see the Rockies blow it from the bull pen once again. That has to hurt to be a starting pitcher and see the bull pen come in and lose it time after time.

Today we had XXX's therapy, I put in a new dryer vent for the MIL and then we ate lunch at the MIL's. Then in the afternoon, I picked up Mom and we went over to the home of one of my childhood friends (the hosue is now occupied by his brother) and cut a bunch of rhubarb - probably a couple of gallons worth anyway. Then we came back to Mom's and pulled radishes and turnips from the garden, then sat on the front porch topping and chopping before we took it all in to wash. Along the way I got to take Mom's vacuum apart and replace a belt. During this time L was back at our house cleaning. So when I got home she wanted to head out for the Rockies Tacos (although they lost, they did score the requisite 7 runs for Taco Bell and Rockies Tacos). As we came home, the sky was starting to look a bit vicious, but it looked like it was north of us and weather here generally moves to the north.

Needless to say, the vicious weather didn't move north. First the wind came up, then the tornado warning sirens fired up, followed by the police and fire trucks running up and down the streets, running their bullhorns telling people that there was a warning and to take cover, followed by the skies opening up and water coming down in sheets. For almost an hour, the sirens fired anew with each new warning. (Not all tornado warnings!) The warning I thought most unique was "Urban Flash Flood Warning" about midway through the whole process. It was raining so hard and fast that the streets and yards were literally flooding since the water arriving was more than could be drained.

After all the excitement settled down (No known tornado touchdown, only some wind and water damage.) life returned to normal about 25 degrees cooler. Some trees lost limbs in the area, but our major damage was simply the blown over basketball hoop. An hour or two after the all clear, it looked like this:

I set it back up and then looked up to see one of the biggest rainbows I've ever seen around here. Pardon my spectacularly poor photography, but hopefully you can see what I'm talking about.