What’s a cold front doing coming through Texas in August? I don’t know, but I’m sure was glad we had one!
Last week we got a lovely break from the 100+ degree temperatures, but it came at a cost. Still, it’s hard to complain about cooler temperatures and a little rain. And this time, we didn’t have to wash all the cars to make it rain.
We were preparing all weekend for the forecasted rain. It looked like it was going to rain the better part of Monday and Tuesday so my husband and I were furiously trying to get everything mowed. While he worked on the yard, I was alternately picking up fallen branches as I mowed the field.
Previous rains followed by hot temperatures allowed the fields to grow quickly and get out of hand. I saw our next rain event as an opportunity to mow down the old growth so that new grass could spring up before fall.
It’s always a difficult thing to predict when to mow for the last time so that the right amount of grass has grown up to sustain the horses over the winter. Usually, summer is very dry and there is not much time between when the rain resumes and when the grass quits growing in the fall.
Sunday was pretty hot but I finished up mowing by noon. I guess it was the heat that actually brought the front in on Sunday evening instead of Monday. As the wind kicked up, I went out to feed the horses. The skies grew very dark and the wind blew harder and harder.
I hadn’t seen a storm with winds like that in a long time. All sorts of things started blowing around the yard. We stood out on the back porch to watch the skies until the rain started getting blown all the way across the porch. There was nowhere to stand that we would not get wet.
This was a cold front, meaning that the storm was coming from out of the north. It also means that the wind was blowing the trees away from the house instead of towards it.
It stormed a while that night, and the morning was quite a bit cooler than normal. Sunrise revealed quite a bit of dead wood from the trees littering the front yard, and a broken branch hanging awkwardly from a tree on the side of the house.
Other than a few broken branches on the property and a few things getting scattered around the yard, we faired pretty well. Our neighbor to the east had a corner of the metal roof on his carport lifted up. Some other neighbors had trees damaged.
Sunday was really the only time it rained at the house, but it probably amounted to a couple of inches. The rest of the week remained cooler than normal thanks to clouds and the north wind. You can see the grass growing.
Friday, we got a bit of news that was both good but disheartening. A few weeks ago, my daughter took her car to be inspected and have the oil changed. Wanting to just make one stop, she took her car to the dealership. We had them change the air filters in the car, too.
Before they were done with her car, the service adviser told her that one of her rear shocks was leaking pretty badly and that it needed to be replaced. Given the facts that I was not expecting that expense, the car only has 30,000 miles on it, and the dealership has overexaggerated things before, I told her that we would have it taken care of later.
Well, on Friday my husband had an independent mechanic look at her car. I was fully prepared to have both rear shocks replaced, hoping it would be cheaper than the dealership had quoted.
According to the mechanic, there is nothing wrong with any of the shocks on my daughter’s car. Imagine that! The mechanic didn’t even charge us for looking at it. I can’t tell you how happy I am that one, there is nothing wrong with her car, and two, I didn’t have to spend hundreds of dollars.
I am not happy, however with the fact that the dealership that she took her car to was so dishonest. It’s hard enough to find an independent mechanic shop that you can trust, but you want to believe that the dealerships make enough money that they won’t lie to you about keeping your car in good running condition.
That pretty much sums up my week. This weekend we will be attempting to clean the coils on the inside unit of our air conditioner. The service company wants $500 to pull the unit to give it a proper cleaning. We will do what we can ourselves.
Have a great weekend!
Zachariah 10:1 Ask the Lord for rain in the spring, for he makes the storm clouds. And he will send showers of rain so every field becomes a lush pasture.
