Monday, May 31, 2010

An interesting day

Contrary to the weather forecast provided yesterday, today started out with warm sunshine. Elise and I went to the cemetery to be part of the Memorial Day service. This city hasn’t really done anything for this day in the past and due to one veteran’s concern last week, a service was quickly put together.

There were prayers, songs, and readings. I was tapped to read the last half of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. All in all, it was a short, but very fitting service honoring veterans as well as remembering those currently serving in the armed forces. This will likely become the first annual Memorial Day service in Petersburg.

We’ve been watching the Babylon 5 TV series during the past few weeks. They were broadcast in the mid-1990’s and we enjoyed them then. We discovered that our library now has all five seasons on DVDs so we’ve been working slowly through them. This afternoon we watched four of the episodes from Season 2.

Afterwards, since the forecast rain still hadn’t arrived I went out to fish again. I forgot to bring along pliers and after I happened to catch a small Dolly, I found I couldn’t remove the hook without endangering my own finger. I called Elise and asked her to bring pliers. With pliers, I removed the hook but by this time the fish had weakened. I had planned to release this one but it was no longer in good condition for releasing so I ended up keeping it. I caught another large one not too longer afterwards.

All the while I was fishing, I was observing changes in weather. One moment the sky was bright and the winds warm. The next, clouds obscured the sun and even a few, scattered, heavy raindrops fell accompanied by strong, cool breezes. Over by the horn cliffs I could see rain falling and clouds increasing.

Right as I was starting to think about packing it up, I saw a flash of lightning. Then and there the decision was made for me. Open water and fishing pole are not a very good combination for a lightning storm. Taking up pole and bucket I hurried the block up home.

While cleaning the catches the storm landed on the island. There were flashes and thunderclaps that continued for a good 30 minutes. In the three-and-a-half years we’ve resided here, I do believe this is our first such storm experience. The right weather conditions don’t happen around here that often. The long, warm weather colliding with a cooler front from the north must have produced just the right conditions this afternoon.

After supper we finished watching Season 2. And now Amy is wondering what happens, since each of the first four seasons ends in a cliff hanger.

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