Things work out

We moved into this house in 1999 and we have loved every minute here ever since. That's one of the main reasons we don't go out much, just to dinner on Fridays and that's about it. We're happy here, and what we don't have, and need, Amazon can bring to us, so....

When we were moving in, my sister kindly surprised us with two of those great rocking chairs from Cracker Barrel. Peggy sits outside every morning on the porch, drinking her coffee and enjoying the out of doors, and she rocks on her chair contentedly. I sit inside, enjoying not being out of doors, perched on a stool, sliding Taylor Ham down my neck.

The other night, we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner and when Peggy saw the rockers on their front porch, she mentioned that it might be time to replace ours, as 24 years of heat and cold and rain and snow have taken their toll on the chairs. And speaking of the front porch, I mentioned that our posts have gotten a bit shabby down at the bases, and we might want to think about replacing them, as well.

It wasn't even 24 hours later that we had a brief, but very intense, thunderstorm roll through. There was a period of wind and spattered rain, and then whew! came a really strong wind, ushering in some rather heavy rain. That wind just sounded a little more fierce than the usual gusts we get.

Sure enough, Peggy went to check on the porch, and found that the wind had totally removed one of the posts - ripped it right off the house -  a pillar in the back of the porch roof, and tossed it onto the driveway like a discarded toothpick. Next to it we found one of the rockers, with a leg broken off. They both landed mere feet from Peggy's car without damaging anything.

Nature speaks to us, and all we have to do is listen. On Saturday, the wind cried, "Go back to the Barrel and get a new chair, and call someone about replacing these posts!"

And so I will. It's not wise to ignore such obvious commands.