“Remoted” – Workday 112 / Day 161 (Monday)

Today was sunny with blue sky as far as I could see, which, with my very limited skyscape blocked by tall houses and taller trees, is not really all that much. At least over my street, the sun was out and the sky was blue but the sound effects did not match the visuals. 

Instead of chirping birds, the soundtrack for grand chunks of the day was the near-constant, low rumble of distant thunder. It hung in the background like a low-grade fever or the tinnitus that cycles through my head for days (even weeks) on end. Moose slept most of the day, awakened periodically, not by the thunder, but by his own snoring.

Around 4:00 the thunder was louder and the sky was gray and heavy and finally matched the mood of the rumbling. Moose was becoming agitated in the twitchy way he does when a storm is near and I was wondering where I last left the Thunder Shirt that helps to calm him. The weather note on my phone, usually quite accurate, seemed to be randomly tossing out numbers like a bingo ball machine, saying it would rain in 90 minutes, three minutes, then 27, then six minutes. To avoid being soaked by the promised rain with the moving target start time, I went outside to harvest basil for the pesto cream sauce planned for supper.

Oops. Kind of scorched.

A little after 5:00, as the pine nuts I intended to lightly toast were rapidly scorching in the toaster oven, it finally rained. For about one whole minute, maybe less. The rain was so brief that when it stopped, the driveway pavement wasn’t wet, it was lightly freckled from individual drops of rain.

Despite the scorched pine nuts, supper was good – cheese ravioli and leftover baked summer vegetables in the cream basil sauce. After supper, it was time to wash the pots and pans and water the droopy plants on the deck. 

Just another day, and just another night.