April Showers and April Storms

At the breakfast table on Saturday morning, we were treated to watching gentle showers out our kitchen window, an appropriate beginning for the month of April.

I was already prepped for April 1. On Friday I had gone into Katherine's to be around while she kept a re-made dentist appointment. The night before Samuel had become even more croupy as he had been progressively doing at night. She figured it was allergies from much outdoor play with Josh. But she was afraid to send him to school; and with the weekend coming up, she made an appointment with his doctor, whom he had not seen in quite awhile.

As soon as she got back from the dentist and hurriedly ate a sandwich, she took Sam to the doctor, where she said his office was crowded with other kids suffering the same symptoms. The doctor agreed it was allergies and advised to keep that cool steamer going at night, gave Sam encouragement to be faithful to take his allergy medicine right now, and assured his mother it was fine for him to play outside despite all the allergens in the air.

Samuel came home ecstatic that he could go get Josh for their usual after-school outdoor play. I saw him coming alone across the park, and he burst into Katherine's bedroom where we were visiting to announce: "Josh can't come over. He broke his leg riding his bicycle today!" As we were commiserating with poor absent Josh and also with Sam's loss of a outdoor playmate, Samuel added, "April Fool!" and Josh appeared in the doorway. We were appropriately amused and irritated even if the boys were jumping the gun with their tomfoolery by one day.

So as Gerald and I ate breakfast, I tried to think of an April Fool joke. Gerald mentioned that if I weren't going any place, he might like to drive the car to Pinckneyville to the softball tournament since it takes less gas than his pickup. Thinking of our ridiculous and almost unbelievable trouble with our beautiful new car (which now drives like a dream, by the way) I carefully mentioned that I had not wanted to ruin his sleep the night before, but somehow or other someone had evidently put a dent in our new car. Gerald acted appropriately also when I giggled, "April Fool!" Maybe his relief saved me from disaster, reckon?

After the shower, the weather on Saturday was so lovely that it was difficult to bear all the dire storm warnings as Sunday came to a close. After the flu and our trip, I had never recovered my energy level and by Sunday evening, I had not been feeling up to making the effort for getting out of the house and driving several miles to our village church for evening Bible study.

We had a quiet restful Sunday,however, and I had decided I was going to Sunday evening services at 6. And I decided the tornado and hail warnings weren't going to cause me to change my mind, tho I considered it. The sky was a very funny color, and that frightened me more than the TV announcers. I took along my raincoat and umbrella and carried them in with me altho I did not need them. We heard hard hard rain during the service, but going back to the car as I avoided the many puddles, again I did not need the raincoat nor umbrella.

As I drove home, I was meeting the cars coming from Arnold View Church. I noticed the last one blinked lights at me, and I wondered if my dim lights seemed that bright to the other driver. Almost immediately as I topped a hill, there was a tree across my half of the road. Fortunately there were no more cars coming and I could go to the other side. The peculiar twilight color was still ominously present, and it was really difficult to see the various limbs and trash that kept popping up in my lane. I was relieved to turn off of Sarahville Road and go west towards home although I still felt the danger of debris lurking in the deepening darkness. I was glad to get home.

While I was gone, brother Garry had called and reported on the huge hail he had gathered at their Union County farm on the banks of Clear Creek. He'd stuck some in their freezer to show off. We were so sorry to hear the TV reports of all the damage up at Christopher and Dix and then this morning to learn about the devastation and deaths in Tennessee.

April storms are as unwelcome as April showers are welcome.