Big rains, big plans

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday night we got our test results from the first FBI exam back; Mama and I each made the same grade, 97. Mama was thrilled. Neither of us expects to do as well on the most recent test we took. There were two people that made over 100 out of a possible 104 points but I do not expect to be able to get perfect scores; passing, yes - perfect, no.

I was in a teleconference meeting yesterday from 8 a.m. until 12:30. That makes for a long day. It was a very productive meeting so it was not a complete bore. It was a preface to what is coming to the office here next week when we will be having such meetings through the entire week. When I got home I was really wanting to do something more active. After some discussion, Mama and I took the tractor, detached the brush hog and cleaned out the barn stalls.

The forecast is for heavy rains and severe thunderstorms through the weekend into next week so dropping the implement from the tractor was the right choice; besides, we needed a shorter profile to get the tractor into the corral area of the barn. As we worked in the barn we could see and hear the storms approaching but we took the time to get to the point that we could walk away satisfied with the effort before we put the tractor up and headed for the house. By that time the storms were upon us.

It intensified through the next couple hours. I did not think much about it until I got a text from one of the ladies who work for me. Her text was pretty anxious. The center of the storm – the tornado and large hail producing part – was to pass through Chico within the next half hour. That changed our focus a little. Meanwhile, Mama was getting Facebook updates from people in the church about hail and strong winds damaging their cars and houses.

Although the storm intensified greatly around that time we did not see any of the destructive parts of it. We had gotten two inches of rain by the time we finally went to bed. The patio flooded due to the volume of rain that fell but the ditch I dug a few days ago managed to keep it at a manageable level and it had drained by this morning. The koi pond is clear full but I have the pump set so Mama can get it emptied before it refills this evening. We will go through the same exercise every night and following morning for the next seven to ten days.

Mama has big plans for me this weekend. All work will have to be inside work so we have scheduled to complete the bathroom vanities on Saturday. That includes the floor repairs under the vanities, the painting of the cabinet between the vanities and the installation of both vanities. She even wants the mirrors painted and rehung. (That may be overreaching.)

I am a little ahead since I installed Mama’s vanity a couple months ago, so hers is already fit – although I will have to pull it out to do the flooring and the painting. There is still a lot of work to do to get it to the point where Mama will call it good.

Should be fun.