This beautiful Ohio Blue Swallowtail stayed with me for well over half an hour. It would flitter away and eventually make its way back and sit on the porch floor at my feet. It’s magical moments like this that keep life interesting and reminds me of just how much beauty there is in the world.
Well, what was supposed to be a three to four day respite at The Farm turned into a quick overnight. A strong but brief thunderstorm blew through just before dawn. The last crack of thunder was a flash/bang that about scared the bejeebers out of me. It settled down and I fell back to sleep. Surprisingly, I didn’t wake up till about 10:00. Mr. FixIt always seems to know when I wake up so he texted me a little after. We chatted a bit then I got up and made my cuppa and went out on the front porch to listen to the birds.
I noticed the clouds were darkening and I could hear thunder in the distance. Just about that time, the wind picked up, I got a notification of a tornado warning, and my phone rang. It was Mr. FixIt. He wanted to be sure I knew what was going on. He said Parkersburg was getting it bad. That’s the thunder I could hear in the distance. Now, I’m not necessarily a Nervous Nellie when it comes to thunderstorms, but that old wooden house is nestled in a holler lined with huge trees. And the ground is mostly shale. A good strong wind could do so much damage and I wasn’t about to be a sitting duck just waiting for it.
Grandma’s Rose of Sharon
I told my sweetheart I was packing to come home and I was out of there in twenty minutes. It didn’t start raining till I got home but boy howdy, it was “Katie Bar The Door” in a hurry. We just got the truck unloaded and the skies opened up. It lasted several hours. I haven’t had a chance to look at the rain gauge yet, but I’ve heard Parkersburg got something like four inches of rain in an hour! Hokey Smokes! There is a used car lot down in the low ground of Garfield Avenue. Folks said “them cars was floating down the street.” Funny what you read on Facebook, ain’t it? Folks make up all kinds of tales. There was some truth in a few of them. Like this guy running his jet ski down the middle of Spring Street. Whoo Doggy. That was some rain!
Of course, we missed out on all that. We just watched the rain pour down and start a brand new leak in the dining room by the chimney. Life’s an adventure! Along about 4:30 or so, the clouds lifted and the sun came out and Mr. FixIt said he was going to town to get a new mower blade and did I want to go with him. Awww, shoot…what intelligent woman would want to miss out on something that fun? So I said, sure…let me go tinkle and comb my hair. Because what self respecting sorta-Southern Belle doesn’t brush her hair and be sure to tinkle before they go out…right?
Freeze frame caught the raindrops in midair!
We went to town and looked at Tractor Supply and Walmart to no avail. It’s the end of mowing season, you see. The mower blades were a little picked over. I mean…there were a couple little bitty ones for a Barbie mower or something. And there were great big ones that could probably double as helicopter blades, I don’t know. But none matched ours. We held them up and compared and either they were too short or too long or too wide or they didn’t have the right holes in them for attaching them to that round thingy in the middle. So, as a last resort…we went to Rural King.
Rural King is my jam. We have DATE NIGHTS at Rural King. They have everything from sawdust to the things that make it. There’s always a couple little birds that have gotten inside and they pig out on the free birdseed as fast as we pig out on the free popcorn. Mr. FixIt found a wire bird feeder in the shape of a rooster that held bird seed AND suet cakes! Boy Howdy…it was something to see.
Isn’t it cute? You can get it here: https://www.ruralking.com/rooster-suet-n-seed-feeder-21815
Now, did I tell you that the low ground of Parkersburg got hit with nearly four inches of rain approximately 90 minutes before we went there? We went into a flood ravaged area…for a mower blade. Truth be told, we bought that lawn mower from this guy that buys up mowers from yard sales and such then he fixes them up and sells them. He shoots for making a $40 profit from every sale, which is pretty decent. He does a bang up job, too. He tunes ‘em up some and paints ‘em pretty. But, when he painted this one, he got paint on the label of the mower blade and we had no idea what it said other than the first three letters.”Ste….” The gal at Tractor Supply asked us what brand the mower was and we looked at each other. “Um, it’s black and burgundy, I think.”
Anyway, we found the mower section at Rural King and there it was! Stens! That’s the brand. Mr. FixIt was picking up blade after blade, looking for one that matched. I was on the internet, looking up Stens Mower Blades. I’m showing him pictures, totally perplexed and wondering if this was something we were going to have to pull out the big guns for and go to…GASP…the lawn mower store! When, finally…my beloved turns over the mower blade and says, “Well, it has this number imprinted on the back.”
More rain on the way…waves and waves of storms over the next week. Ahhhh….cooler temps!
Neither one of us thought to turn it over and see if there was a part number! I plugged the number into the search bar on Amazon and…BOOM! $15.26 and it’ll be delivered Thursday. But, hey…we had a good time. We bought a bag of popcorn and the pigeons in the parking lot threatened to kill us over it. Like a scene with Tippi Hedren. We stopped at City Park and walked a lap to blow off some stink and headed on home.
Fun times!
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“A cheerful heart is good medicine….”
Proverbs 17:22 NIV