This is my favorite season.  It has the dangerous storms, lethal lightning and horizontal rain.

About 10 years ago when we lived in Texas, we had an incredible storm roll through the small Texas town.  The next morning, as I laid in bed trying to get the eyes to open, my wife came into the bedroom to hand me some coffee and casually said, “Honey, what did you do with the swimming pool?”

“Huh?”

“It’s not in the backyard.”

“Huh!”  Then I thought she is probably pulling a joke on me, but got to thinking, why would she come up with such an outlandish comment.

I jumped out of bed and realized why she had the outlandish comment, because it was indeed true!

The swimming pool was no longer in the backyard.  When we went to bed the previous night, it was there and now it’s not.

So, I adopt my casual attitude like I knew what happened all along.

“Well, honey, what probably happened is … well it was, it is …..” …and I let me voice trail away.

Below is what the swimming pool looked like, minus the pool.

And this is what I found when I stuck my head out into the alley. The camera picture was blurred and I’m sure the situation had something to do with it. The pool was almost empty with about 3-4 inches of water, but was still sucked up and tossed over the fence.  I took it apart since the majority of the metal was bent and gave it a proper burial at the landfill.

Yeah!  I love this weather.  Keep your feet anchored to the ground and head up, so you don’t miss any of it.  D.

Working overseas, we meet many good people and a few stinkers.

There is a young lady down the hall from my office that drops by to visit and drink coffee every morning.  At least once a week, she has an interesting tale concerning her twin 5 year old sons.

One Monday morning, she came in and I could tell she had a ragged weekend.  She sat quietly, and then casually commented, “Did I tell you my kids ran away from home the other day?”

“Ah, no!”

“Yeah.  They took off out the front door and the nanny ran after them.  Outside, they split up and each went a different direction, and the nanny couldn’t catch either of them.”

I waited, not knowing what to say.

“We had the local guard force looking for them, and the Security office was out trying to find them.  I was worried sick!”

I assumed they were indeed found, so I said. “Where did they find them?”

“Oh, they were in a bookstore in the mall.  The one that has a bowl of free candy.”

And she continued. “They had to slip though the perimeter fence of the apartment compound and cross a very busy highway to get to the mall.  I asked them how they were able to cross the highway, and they said, ‘Oh, we held hands.”

Then she stated, “I was so distraught, I didn’t know whether to be relieved or angry.”

I did notice that she seemed to have a bit more gray in her hair.

Kids.  That had to have taken a year off her life.

Kick butt, D.