A Hum-Dinger of a Storm

So, if you've been reading, you know that I have been posting about the "hum-dingerness" of last week. The Hum-dinger of a Refinance and the Hum-Dinger of a Wild Cat were two reasons. But, there was a third reason causing again, Lack of Sleep.

(sorry, upon proofreading *late* (ha), I see that digression ensues...)

My friends, sleep is SO important. There is a reason why it was/is used on POWs -as a means of torture and getting information. Our brain HAS to have it. The stability of its electro-chemical wiring is dependent on it...we MALFUNCTION when we don't get it in the right quantity and/or quality. Okay, as it I have side-barred enough... A Lack of Sleep is really the main reason I'm going 'Ugghh' on having another child. I don't do well without sleep. I am a calm, even-tempered person... actual I have been called "bubbly"and cheerful ... but with out sleep... ?? ... so I digress.

Okay... so... the storm... so, I'm sitting on the couch scrupulously reading over a hoard of bank documents to make sure that there are no errors and we are not signing into some crazy agreement that has us pay an interest rate equal to my husband's shoe size (he has big feet), when I hear the wind start to kick up. Okay, so, the wind is kicking up. "They" (the weathermen, I watched more than one) said a front was coming. Well, the wind continues with more gusto. So I set my all important documents down in perfect order and head to the computer. I open the NOAA weather site that has radar for our region of Texas and, yup, there's a bright red line fast approaching. I gauged the distance traveled in the loop with beginning and end times and guessed it to approach at 12:30 AM. It was 11:50 PM at this point.

Well, let me tell you, yes, this baby picked up winds slowly and steadily all up until 12:25 when I thought Dorthy and Toto were coming to visit. Our west door started humming so loudly, like a loud off-key clarinet. At first, I sat there, listened, and tried reading more- when, all at once, the clarinet started screaming(!)... I just KNEW my daughter was going to wake up... and my mom (she was visiting) and my husband. I immediately got up and went to push the door back. The noise ceased, but then the door pushed me back ...let's just say, I did not wet my pants... but, very well could have. I pushed back harder to make the whine stop. Then, I started contemplating if I should go into the hall closet for safety... but what about my daughter... I don't hear a train... it's not a tornado... just high wind... gees, are the windows going to blow out... maybe I shouldn't worry about holding the door... no, the noise might wake everyone, they're still asleep... sooo, I stood there holding the door so all would be quite except for the loud continuous WHOOSH of the 86 mph wind(!) that was going on outside. Yes, that is what it was.

After another, oh, about 45 seconds, the wind dramatically died down and my pants were still dry. I raced in to tell my husband all was okay... because surely he finally woke up after that. Nope, asleep. Same with my mom. Same with my daughter (thank goodness). I then went to check our weather station display. Sustained winds of 55 mph with gusts up to 86.1 mph.

No wonder I about wet my britches.

I can't believe that we didn't have more damage than we did. Well, I guess hurricane Ike took care of any vulnerabilities back in September (see here). So, our porch rocker lost a leg since it was tossed from the corner of our porch out towards the barn.

And our garage door blew out... hurricane Ike started this problem.

All else was fine, so I am thankful. But it did add to all the 'hum-dingerness' of the week because of the whole lack of sleep thing, as I would have gotten to bed a lot early and been able to sleep had we not had Dorthy and Toto swirling around my brain whilst a clarinet screamed in the background.

Oh well, things could be worse.

[ p.s. please forgive any errors, I need sleep. ]