This is not the weblog entry I sat down to write . . . but the rain is so cool right now, I just needed to mark this moment.
Earlier today, while I waited for Anne, I sat in my car and looked up at the clouds through my sun roof. It was the coolest thing to see these huge, cheerful, fluffy white clouds moving one way while dark, brooding, grey clouds behind them moved the other way. Occasionally, they’d cross each other at just the right moment, and a little blue sky would peek out.
Right now, an incredibly angry (for Pasadena) thunderstorm is raging over the mountains. It’s just recently begun falling over our house, and each thunderclap is accompanied by —
Holy fuck. Thunder so loud the whole house just shook. It was concussive, like someone was launching artillery shells. Riley raced under the table, and Ferris just looked up at the window, head cocked to one side like, “What was that?”
Anyway, each time there’s a thunderclap (except the most recent, too big, I guess) a murder of crows that hangs out in the tree behind our house takes to the air, and circles around for a moment before they return. They are black spots against the greenish-grey sky.
The last time they took flight, I watched them swirl around the sky above my house, and I wondered, wistfully . . .
Why the hell didn’t I clean out my gutters when I had the chance?
WOAH!
Okay, that blast of thunder was bigger than the one before, and it’s still rolling across the sky while I type this.
And the power just went out. Good thing I’m composing this on my iBook!
Hold on. I gotta light some candles. It’s totally dark in my house.
Okay, the only candles I have are those smelly ones from Yankee Candle Company, so the house, while adequately lit, is this nauseating melange of Cotton, Pumpkin Pie, Cool Citrus and Basil, Midnight Rain (whatever the hell that is) and Ocean Breezes.
Yuck. Maybe I’ll just sit in the dark.
47 thoughts on “Old rocking chair’s gonna get me”
Comments are closed.
Wil,
You’ve got to stick to one scent at a time from Yankee Candle Co. I’m guessing your house smells like the Yankee Candle Co. store in the mall right now. Overpowering.
Oh, man, I used to work at Wicks’n’Sticks, and I know exactly what each of those smells like!
Definately bad news burning them all at once. P-U!
It was totally clear in Irvine. I could not figure out what the hell the massive blue flashes I kept seeing were until I got home to Yorba Linda where the storm is in full effect.
Holy GOD, Wil. I thought *I* was the only one nauseated by mixed Yankee misery. I have this friend, and he feels the need to light those damn things all OVER his house. One is pungent, and fine. Ten, in every damn flavor, is enough to make you retch. I’m fairly sure Jimmy Hoffa, where ever he is, can smell this guy’s apartment.
*Quote* Yuck. Maybe I’ll just sit in the dark.
I don’t know why but I actually could see him say that in my mind. Wow! Ever spray Pepsi out your nose…???
Whew… the joy of mixed candle scents. d:
Sounds like a good storm! I’m assuming you folks out there don’t really have to worry about tornadoes all that often. The sight of a greenish-grey sky is enough to make this native Midwesterner just a wee bit anxious. (;
-Awesome-
I love reading stream of consciousness stories.
I was at the hopsital all day with my husband, and it got kind of menceing looking, no rain, just the lightning, and it was relentless. Then it finally let us have it here in OC around 6-7 pm. Anyway, watch out for the candles, a good way to not get sick over the smell is to have some coffee grounds in a small bowl,when the smell is overwhelming take a slight sniff at the coffee grounfs (unused) it helps clear the sent. I use to work in a candle shop and we had it under the counters.
Pumpkin Pies? What’s Pumpkin Pies, filthy hobbitsess? Gives us wriggly squirmy slimy Fishsess to smell, nots Piesess.
It has been a drizzly rain all day here. I love this time of year because it’s the only time that it ever rains out here in the desert. I love the rain. Why did I move to Arizona again?
My place of employment is now taking some support calls for a bandwidth leasing firm, and they have a facility in LA. We got a call form a very unhappy person because all of his servers were down because the power went out at the LA facility.
I agree with the ‘ick’ about the candles. I can barely handle one of those things at once, I can’t even imagine six. Ick.
That’s about all I have to say.
I love the rain.
Stormy Weather? GREAT song, Wil.
Sure as hell didn’t STAY clear in Irvine. I would’ve had a glorious view of the lightning from the fifth floor of the UCI Science Library … if I hadn’t had to run home to steal the garage from my roommate because the trunk of my car leaks.
Ah well, at least the car got wet enough to wash the last of the ashes off … I do wish we got real thunderstorms ’round here more often, though. Not just the little pansy t-storms that throw two bolts of lightning so ya rush to turn your computer off, then not a single flash the rest of the night.
Aw, Wil… I’m jealous! Up here in Santa Barbara we had some rumbles today, but no rain. Though I did get to fall asleep to the rain last night, which was lovely. I just moved here from Houston a few months ago, and I miss real thunderstorms.
i hate those power-outages (hmm, was it ahhhnold’s fault?) ..lol. i’m just glad i have fresh batteries in my trusty tricorder.. :p
Wil, I’ve always adored you. Had a crush on you most of my life, but just now, after reading that last entry, I genuinely smiled and laughed for the first time in what seems like….forever. And I wanted to say – thanks. You have no idea who I am, or why I haven’t smiled. But…it helped. Thanks.
Sheets of rain here in Central Pennsylvania. The kind of rain one would expect during the summer here in the Appilacians, not in the middle of November. Soon after, the rain subsided, and since then we’ve had nothing but howling winds. The neighbors lost a tarp they had in the back yard, and I was rudely awakened at 3:30am by a branch from a tree across the road smacking into my window.
Old man weather doesn’t like America today, I guess…
California has earthquakes that no one even notices, but when it rains everyone acts like the end is near.
By the way, anyone know the difference between a hurricane and an earthquake? In hurricanes, trees fall on buildings. In earthquakes, buildings fall on trees. Good to know. 😉
Here in southwestern Wisconsin, it snowed today, and there was some frost on the windows. Looks like another mild winter for us.
i really wonder what the etymology of “murder of crows” is. too bad i don’t have an OED.
i work in old town, and every time there was lightning you could hear people out on our floor going, “whoa!” i’m from california, but having lived in boston for four years, i can appreciate how cute californians get when it rains. “what’s going on here? something’s falling from the sky! OH MY GOSH!”
try South Florida if you want to talk t-storms, down here we just count the charred bodies of golfers instead of inches of rain.
*shivers* Those candles should only be taken in SMALL doses. Otherwise I can’t breathe anymore. Too much scent!
Get some plain candles for the next time the power goes off. 😛
Oh and CLEAN YOUR GUTTERS!!!
*OtterHuggles*
Will,
I grew up in Western Massachusetts not far from the place where all Yankee Candle comes from. Driving up route 91 to school as we went through South Deerfield, MA, you could smell those damn candle scents for miles. It was awful. To this day, I refuse to allow scented candles anywhere near me. Us locals used to laugh at all the New Yorkers and people from CT driving up to VT to go skiing. They’d inevitably peel off the road and go buy overpriced candles. Yeah, it was great for the local economy, but at what metaphysical price? I enjoyed your entry because it reminded me of the sheer awfulness of it all.
Man, we didn’t have any good thunderstorms like that this past summer. (Damned drought!) I was kinda hoping to fry my six-year-old PII-400 with a lightning strike. >8-) It’s insured for $2200 replacement value. I could probably get two *sweet* systems today for that much cash.
Hey wil. Wow, i really love your writing, it really does make me feel as if i am right there with you. I also love thunder storms. for most of my life i hated them…don’t know why! i knew they couldn’t do anything to me, but i was just totally scared of them. but then a few years ago, i had to work on a girl scout camp over the summer in Virginia…and BOY do they get some Thunderstorms there!! so, becuase i had about 15 12 year old girls to look after, i had pretend that i didn’t mind the storms. well after a while i learnt to like them, and now i think they are great. just the buzz that you can get off listening to one those HUGE great rumbles that you described…wow..
well, anyway. there you go! thanks for sharing wil, we always enjoy it!
rach
xxx
Eh, WIl, too bad you dont live in Costa Rica. Last night it was like 78 Degrees out, and I spent the night listening to Jazz at one of my favorite hotel bars, and then had some incredible Middle Eastern Food at this rockin’ lebanese rest. I even did one of your numbers and used my Sony Ericsson P800 and my Palm Tungsten T2 to audio blog and take some grainy dark pictures, but it was cool. Check it out at:
http://homepage.mac.com/dsanderson11/iblog/B1654647951/C1882378486/E893356947/index.html
See, now you know how those of us who were in the NYC blackout this summer felt. It wasn’t the dark or the lack of AC and cable and internet that bothered us…it was that I pulled out all my YCC candles that people have given me over the years…Vanilla, Peach, Cinnimon, Apple Spice, and it made me sick. On the one hand, there was light. On the other, there were allergies. Allergies won.
First song I thought of when I saw “Old rocking chair’s gonna get me” is Louis Armstrong’s “Rockin’ Chair”, one of his all-time best.
“Rocking chair got you, father…
Cane by your side…
I got no gin for your, father,
Gonna tan my hide, tan my hide…”
There are days when I don’t know what’s better, your writing, or the wide range of images your titles evoke, intended or not.
Excellent use of the term “murder” to denote a group of crows! My parents had this book called “An Exultation of Larks” that was full of those odd grouping names. Some of them are wonderfully imaginative (e.g. a murder of crows or a sly of foxes) but the opportunity to use them rarely comes up. Geez I’m a geek. *8-)X=
the other thing is that those paraffin candles are really bad for your air quality. pure beeswax or soy/veggie candles are the cleanest.
and trim your wicks to 1/4 inch before lighting (each time) or the flame can get too high. this is how houses burn down–no trimming and then walking away.
wil,
if i had half the writing talent you have, i could give up this crappy job and do what i would really rather be doing. finishing my first novel.
this entry was so powerful. thanks.
I live just a few miles from Wil, and he was not exaggerating…the booms from the thunder were amazingly huge. I’ve been through all of California’s large earthquakes since 1971, and these booms were comparable to the beginnings of the largest quakes.
The first rumbles I heard last night must have been right over my house, and I really feared that the walls would fall, or at least my stuff would fall off the walls. A low rumbling would start on one side of my body, and travel across to the other, and then whack, an explosion of sound and sense followed that sounded like a high-tech crack of a giant whip.
So of course I was stupid enough to go outside to watch the skies. Disaster, in California, is quite beautiful, and fires make the most amazing sunsets.
I heard LA got alot of hail and everyone thought the world was coming to an end.
Okay my mom tends to get dramatic!
Enjoy the storm. 🙂
Give up the smelly candles and just buy tea lights. They’re cheap, burn for hours, and come in their own containers. Just don’t buy the smelly ones.
The candles are even worse when you blow them out and the smell of the ember combines with the candle scent.
On the news they showed all the hail that was in Watts. It looks like snow at first glance. Pretty crazy.
While walking in the rain yesterday I got drenched when a truck raced by and splashed a huge puddle on me. Today the sky is blue with only a few white fluffy clouds, complete change.
That is cool to watch the weather go buy you guys have had the strange weather today. It makes surfing the net very scekecty
I just read an article about the weather you experienced yesterday. During the summer storms like that are an almost weekly occurrence in Minnesota during late spring and summer. We don’t get that much rain in one storm, but lovely lightning shows and sonic bombs of thunder. Storms make for good excuses for being late for work. No power, no alarm clock. I hope you enjoyed it!
Hey–you want real weather? Come visit us in Oklahoma again next year in May!
Grandma Lolly- anywhere in the midwest really, but my thoughts exactly. Hey, didn’t Topeka get storms like this? uh,I think so. Come on Wil, get out from under your table and take it like a man! It’s just rain.
It’s crazy back East also. Low over
Canada and High over Miss has a wind-tunnel
gradient from Me to Ga. Winds like it’s hurricane season. Recorded an 68 MPH gust this afternoon here in De. 15-30 MPH steady winds since last evening. Trees and power lines down everyplace.
Philadelphia Flyers hockey game this evening was delayed 1/2 hour due to a power failure at the Stadium. (NHL by candlelight anyone?)
LA with a foot of hailstones on the streets? Like R.E.M. said “It’s the
end of the World as we know it..” (sunspots?)
In the ice storm of ’98 we were without power for about three and a half days. We had a kerosene heater going and a big ass scented candle. It was peach scent. Oh man, with the fumes of the heater, combining with the fumes from the candle.. well.. we all had pretty good headaches.
Well look at that.. starting to snow here. Really light.. it’s kind of hypnotic.
What, you don’t have Mountain Pine? You’re missing out.
…heh.
Ah.. without power for 4 hours! I have no pity! Hurricane Isabel left us in southeastern Virginia without power for weeks!
I do feel your pain with the Yankee candles, though. There was a report on the news a while back saying that those scented candles polute the air in your house more than second hand smoke. Go figure!
I hear yeah on the LOUD thunder. that is the same storm that hit here in teh Bay Area overnight Saturday/Sunday, and the thunder hit while I was sleeping. The first flash/crack were right on top of each other, and so loud, and I was half-asleep, so i thought the gas station on the corner had blown up! Would have been better to know what was going on, I think!
>And the power just went out.
>Good thing I’m composing this on my iBook!
Sorry to sound like an ad for {insert appropriate company here} but that is one reason why you should have a battery back up on your confuser. [I’ve even got one on the TV/DVD/VCR] Mine has saved my butt a couple of times – both times were a few second outage, but would have been a big pain to have lost everything at that moment.
I even put a tiny one on my mother-in-law’s clock and answering machine. She couldn’t reset them by herself.
We here on the Palos Verdes Peninsula didn’t experience any weather Wednesday. The only reason I know that there were storms anywhere in LA is from the news and from reading your entries. We just had a few minutes of thunder and lightning. The power blipped twice. Our computers were okay, because we have an UPS.
Pffft!!! That’s no thunderstorm. Come down where we live and die (literally) by Doppler radar. I’ll show you what a REAL thunderstorm is like. I live in Oklahoma where meteorologists come to train on how to read doppler radar images.
Seriously, though, those thundermonsters are all too familiar. This and the mile-wide tornadoes are why my closet is a concrete bunker – seriously!
Oh, and a hint on the candles… make your own like I do. That way you’ll always have plenty of the same scent lying around… and it’s fun and relaxing, too.
As soon as I read line about that first thunderclap, there was this really loud one here as well! I love the weather here in Sydney… completely unpredictable.