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dragonlady7if you punish a person for dreaming his dreams
don't expect him to thank or forgive you
the best ever death metal band outta Denton
will in time both outpace and outlive you
Hail Satan!
Hail Satan, tonight!
Hail Satan!
Hail, hail!
I came here to write about a hailstorm but for some reason the world Hail got the Mountain Goats' Best Ever Death Metal Band Outta Denton stuck in my head. I remember reading someone's blog post about them, way back in the days before social media when there were just a few freestanding sites by gifted essayists, and I'd never heard the Mountain Goats and there wasn't any kind of streaming site or YouTube yet, and this guy mentioned listening to this song somewhere public with a straight face and the Hail Satan Hail Satan part came on and it was funny, and I only years and years later heard the song and was like oh! Oh huh.
(This blogger called himself Emperor Joshua Norton and was fascinating, and then someone tried to dox him, before that was a word, and he was like welp bye y'all maybe I'll publish a memoir someday but since I didn't know his real name, and of course the pseudonym was a real person and that dominates search results, I'll never find him again. Weird relics of the pre-Google Internet.)
Anyhow.
Tumblr's algorithm is yet more broken. I've been over there poking at Good Omens content, happily, in my few free moments on the Internet (this is a stolen one), but if I make a post, I can no longer see anyone's engagement on it-- it flashes on the screen when I reload the activities panel, but then disappears. So what's the point? You can't have a conversation at all, so why talk? All I can do is count on seeing the same meme again reposted if I keep scrolling, which is fine but gets old.
Anyhow anyhow! Back to the hailstorm.
So last night after dinner the sky started rumbling, and Sister made some offhand comment about how we might only get rain, so I looked at the weather and was like oh, the region is going to be engulfed in severe thunderstorms. Fantastic.
So, I got my dessert to go and hustled out to the yurt. I just had time to start hanging up the tarps and things, and I was focusing on the south side of the yurt where I suspect water is coming in under the floor, and I worked on that for a bit and then the thunder was more serious and the rain went from a sprinkle to a weird foreboding stillness, so I went inside the yurt. And I looked north and was like oh huh, I have part of the wall unhooked a little there, I should fix that, there's a gap-- but the wind doesn't usually come from quite that quarter, so I'm normally pretty safe there. I was distracted, because Reno the cat had asked to come in and was pacing around nervously and wanted very badly for me to comfort him, because he didn't like the sky noises. So I forgot about the gap in the wall and sat and petted him.
And then the wind thrashed the trees, and then there was a scary rushing sound, and I looked out and it was a wall of rain coming across the creek, and then it was on us, and I realized it wasn't just rain, it was hail too-- little hail, and then bigger, up to pea-size.
Instantly, it was coming straight through the north wall gap, and the wind was tugging the roof hole cover out of position, and then a torrent came in, not under the south wall but under the east wall which I should have foreseen was where it was really coming from. So I was in water up to my ankles, and water was coming from above, from below, from the door and from the window, and from the north wall, all over the bed. I threw a towel down over the bed and then stood on the edge of the bed holding the roof cover in position, so that water ran down both my arms. I decided that was only making it worse, so went to try to close the north wall gap instead. That was also futile, so I stuffed a pair of jeans out of the laundry pile into the gap to deflect the water, and bundled up the blankets and left the sheets to their fate.
The new chimney for the woodstove came apart dramatically, and blew over, shedding its rain cap and transforming itself into a convenient gutter into the middle of the yurt. I pointed it a safe direction and retrieved the bits of itself it had shed.
Poor Reno panicked, bolted off the bed, slunk around the floor trying in vain to find a safe spot, and eventually vanished under the bed, where I know he crouched in about an inch of water for a little while.
The storm passed after a ten-minute eternity, and I pushed the roof hole cover back into place, did my best to direct the stream of water across the floor with my feet, and started to clean up.
BIL came out to check on the animals, and included me in his circuit, so it was good I hadn't shed my sopping clothes yet-- I'd thought of it, but decided to clean up first. He helped me put the chimney back up, and offered to help come up with fasteners, but I decided it's supposed to be temporary; this just strengthened my resolve to take it down every time I leave. It can be set up alone, but I took advantage of a long-armed six foot two guy to set the top bit back on for me so I didn't have to lean my chest on the wet roof. I could do it alone, though.
(I've still never used this thing, lol.)
I used my wet clothes to mop the yurt floor, then stripped the bed and remade it with dry sheets, which I had because I'm smart. Then I hung the wet blankets out to dry, changed into pajamas, got all settled, and then noticed...
the lights were off. I'd left them on.
Well, easy enough, the extension cord has a light in the plug, if that's out then it's unplugged. Went back, found the junction. Sound, not unplugged. Went back to the greenhouse. Vent fan off. That's not good. Nope no power to greenhouse. Went further back to the barn. No sound of the fence charger going; no power to the barn. (Checked the chick brooder. No heat lamps. Nope, no power to the barn.) Kept walking back to the big barn. No power there, lightswitches don't work. Went back to the house. Dark and silent. Nobody there, everyone was out checking on things and Farmkid was asleep.
Met my sister on the way back out to the yurt, and she confirmed, power's out; she'd been checking on the flowers and plants. Some hail damage to the seedlings in the cold frame, but they'd probably survive. The flax lodged a bit, but might recover. (Maturing flax sometimes gets flattened and doesn't stand back up, which is bad, so, I'm worried but not too worried.)
Went back to the yurt, dug out my remaining kerosene lantern from the days before I had power. Lit it, went to bed with it lit.
Woke up around midnight in a bright, bright place. Ah. Got out of bed, turned off lights, plugged in all electronics to charge.
Woke up around 3 freezing, because my duvet was wet and I was relying instead on thin blankets. Got up, found some sweatshirts, assembled them into a pile over myself, went back to sleep.
I have a lot of laundry to do today, to get everything used as a mop cleaned and dried back out. I also have some sudden chest congestion this morning. Not pleasant, but. Thyme and hyssop and honey, and we'll hope it clears up.
don't expect him to thank or forgive you
the best ever death metal band outta Denton
will in time both outpace and outlive you
Hail Satan!
Hail Satan, tonight!
Hail Satan!
Hail, hail!
I came here to write about a hailstorm but for some reason the world Hail got the Mountain Goats' Best Ever Death Metal Band Outta Denton stuck in my head. I remember reading someone's blog post about them, way back in the days before social media when there were just a few freestanding sites by gifted essayists, and I'd never heard the Mountain Goats and there wasn't any kind of streaming site or YouTube yet, and this guy mentioned listening to this song somewhere public with a straight face and the Hail Satan Hail Satan part came on and it was funny, and I only years and years later heard the song and was like oh! Oh huh.
(This blogger called himself Emperor Joshua Norton and was fascinating, and then someone tried to dox him, before that was a word, and he was like welp bye y'all maybe I'll publish a memoir someday but since I didn't know his real name, and of course the pseudonym was a real person and that dominates search results, I'll never find him again. Weird relics of the pre-Google Internet.)
Anyhow.
Tumblr's algorithm is yet more broken. I've been over there poking at Good Omens content, happily, in my few free moments on the Internet (this is a stolen one), but if I make a post, I can no longer see anyone's engagement on it-- it flashes on the screen when I reload the activities panel, but then disappears. So what's the point? You can't have a conversation at all, so why talk? All I can do is count on seeing the same meme again reposted if I keep scrolling, which is fine but gets old.
Anyhow anyhow! Back to the hailstorm.
So last night after dinner the sky started rumbling, and Sister made some offhand comment about how we might only get rain, so I looked at the weather and was like oh, the region is going to be engulfed in severe thunderstorms. Fantastic.
So, I got my dessert to go and hustled out to the yurt. I just had time to start hanging up the tarps and things, and I was focusing on the south side of the yurt where I suspect water is coming in under the floor, and I worked on that for a bit and then the thunder was more serious and the rain went from a sprinkle to a weird foreboding stillness, so I went inside the yurt. And I looked north and was like oh huh, I have part of the wall unhooked a little there, I should fix that, there's a gap-- but the wind doesn't usually come from quite that quarter, so I'm normally pretty safe there. I was distracted, because Reno the cat had asked to come in and was pacing around nervously and wanted very badly for me to comfort him, because he didn't like the sky noises. So I forgot about the gap in the wall and sat and petted him.
And then the wind thrashed the trees, and then there was a scary rushing sound, and I looked out and it was a wall of rain coming across the creek, and then it was on us, and I realized it wasn't just rain, it was hail too-- little hail, and then bigger, up to pea-size.
Instantly, it was coming straight through the north wall gap, and the wind was tugging the roof hole cover out of position, and then a torrent came in, not under the south wall but under the east wall which I should have foreseen was where it was really coming from. So I was in water up to my ankles, and water was coming from above, from below, from the door and from the window, and from the north wall, all over the bed. I threw a towel down over the bed and then stood on the edge of the bed holding the roof cover in position, so that water ran down both my arms. I decided that was only making it worse, so went to try to close the north wall gap instead. That was also futile, so I stuffed a pair of jeans out of the laundry pile into the gap to deflect the water, and bundled up the blankets and left the sheets to their fate.
The new chimney for the woodstove came apart dramatically, and blew over, shedding its rain cap and transforming itself into a convenient gutter into the middle of the yurt. I pointed it a safe direction and retrieved the bits of itself it had shed.
Poor Reno panicked, bolted off the bed, slunk around the floor trying in vain to find a safe spot, and eventually vanished under the bed, where I know he crouched in about an inch of water for a little while.
The storm passed after a ten-minute eternity, and I pushed the roof hole cover back into place, did my best to direct the stream of water across the floor with my feet, and started to clean up.
BIL came out to check on the animals, and included me in his circuit, so it was good I hadn't shed my sopping clothes yet-- I'd thought of it, but decided to clean up first. He helped me put the chimney back up, and offered to help come up with fasteners, but I decided it's supposed to be temporary; this just strengthened my resolve to take it down every time I leave. It can be set up alone, but I took advantage of a long-armed six foot two guy to set the top bit back on for me so I didn't have to lean my chest on the wet roof. I could do it alone, though.
(I've still never used this thing, lol.)
I used my wet clothes to mop the yurt floor, then stripped the bed and remade it with dry sheets, which I had because I'm smart. Then I hung the wet blankets out to dry, changed into pajamas, got all settled, and then noticed...
the lights were off. I'd left them on.
Well, easy enough, the extension cord has a light in the plug, if that's out then it's unplugged. Went back, found the junction. Sound, not unplugged. Went back to the greenhouse. Vent fan off. That's not good. Nope no power to greenhouse. Went further back to the barn. No sound of the fence charger going; no power to the barn. (Checked the chick brooder. No heat lamps. Nope, no power to the barn.) Kept walking back to the big barn. No power there, lightswitches don't work. Went back to the house. Dark and silent. Nobody there, everyone was out checking on things and Farmkid was asleep.
Met my sister on the way back out to the yurt, and she confirmed, power's out; she'd been checking on the flowers and plants. Some hail damage to the seedlings in the cold frame, but they'd probably survive. The flax lodged a bit, but might recover. (Maturing flax sometimes gets flattened and doesn't stand back up, which is bad, so, I'm worried but not too worried.)
Went back to the yurt, dug out my remaining kerosene lantern from the days before I had power. Lit it, went to bed with it lit.
Woke up around midnight in a bright, bright place. Ah. Got out of bed, turned off lights, plugged in all electronics to charge.
Woke up around 3 freezing, because my duvet was wet and I was relying instead on thin blankets. Got up, found some sweatshirts, assembled them into a pile over myself, went back to sleep.
I have a lot of laundry to do today, to get everything used as a mop cleaned and dried back out. I also have some sudden chest congestion this morning. Not pleasant, but. Thyme and hyssop and honey, and we'll hope it clears up.
