Storms brewing...

When you wake up at 4 am and the weather is dark and ominous, the wind is blowing hard enough to make all the wind chimes sound like a symphony, it's January, 68 degrees and humid, you know that the day is going to get progressively worse. Rarely do you think that life will imitate nature.

All day the sky was brewing and twisting and turning. The air was oppressive and heavy.  Each glance out the window a promise of worse to come. Doors being slammed shut by the wind, barely missing fingers and various other body parts. The fear of another January tornado rushing through the area with such destructive force on everyone's mind.

Over laid on top of the external chaos was internal chaos at work all day!  Yikes!  The first phone call started the ball rolling down hill so fast that the work day promised to be what exploded in thunder before the sky outside.

I have an amazingly wonderful staff person.  She has a heart of pure gold and is so kind and giving.  Unfortunately, she is also easily distracted and one minor thing will quickly lead to the next and before you know it the entire department is in chaos and tempers were rising quicker inside than the storm was brewing outside. 

It was simply the kind of day that didn't promise to end well.

As the storm front moved in outside and the tempers flared inside, the discomfort all around was starting to get overwhelming.  Pressures outside were balancing the frustration inside when the first lightening bolt split the sky.
 
I finally had another supervisor watch my section so I could try to bring to bring things back into focus just before the storm broke. Thirty minutes later, the internal storm was under control, as the external storm was raging to life.

That crack immediately followed by those huge rain drops, the kind that drench you in seconds, seemed to change the entire day.  Usually a huge storm means things at work almost come to a screeching halt, most folks don't feel the need to go out when it is just plain gross outside. Yesterday was no exception to that rule.  As we worked with the few brave souls that had come out  you could feel the tension drain out of the day.  Laughter had started to replace tension and the day was improving.

I was looking forward to the evening.  Our youngest girls were coming for the evening, we don't see them much anymore and we had dinner cooking in the crock pot.  What I was not looking forward to was the drive home, folks around here are not fun to spend quality commuting time with when it storms.  And it was storming! Hubby was kind enough to get the car so that I didn't have to get drenched walking out to it, even so, that five foot walk was enough to soak me and let me know it Mother Nature was pretty intent on refilling the Mississippi all in one night.

Strangely the commute was pretty mild, most folks seemed to be feeling that same release of stress the start of the storm had created.  We were able to make the commute in less than 30 minutes and only saw one accident, and that looked like someone hydroplaned off the ramp.  I guess the storm really was releasing a lot of tension and stress the entire area had been under.

Hubby drove across the street to grab neighbors who were joining us for dinner, the twins arrived safely, if not late due to shopping (teens...) and dinner was such a wonderful time.  We laughed, teased, talked and simply enjoyed an okay dinner.  I cooked it and I am still prepared to say it was simply okay.

The tense crackling air that had lingered for a week, the dryness that was causing everyone to be shocked every time they touched anything, the pressure of the air that had lingered in these few days of beauty all disappeared.  Tension and pressure washed away.

Today feels fresh and new, the rain is still falling, the breeze is normal, and having my window open in late January feels amazing!  I love the release a beautiful storm brings, the washing away of all the bad and the restoring of the good.  Just wish my old dog did, he has had a less than restful night... Looking forward to the glory of the coming day... maybe we will see a rainbow!