Rainy day, floods and more

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...

I'm glad somebody is restful, since it certainly isn't me! This morning, I was awakened abruptly by a loud thunderstorm at 5:00 Am. My little dog Hannah immediately swarmed out from under the covers and huddled across my face, shivering. She does not like thunderstorms, and while I sympathize, having a 12 pound dog cutting off your air and scraping your eyelids with her claws is not a pleasant early morning experience. There was nothing for it--I managed to remove the little face-hugger and was up for the day. Lucky for me, I had filled the coffee pot before retiring the previous evening, so all I had to do was over-ride the timer and I had the lovely hot stuff to wake me up. This was all good, as the morning was rather chaotic! The thunderstorm did not abate, and in fact was pretty bad for a good couple of hours. For those of you without dogs, this means that (1) not one wanted to go out and pee/poo, so at least one of them whizzed on the carpet, (2) flooding ensued on the sun porch to an impressive degree, (3) my umbrella blew inside out while I was trying to ferry feed to the chickens, so I got drenched all over instead of just my boots, (4) some dog broke a hole through a window screen, when I had forced them outdoors during a lull in the storm to "do their business, dammit" and the storm decided to renew with a vengance, and (5) the power went out temporarily right as the toaster was in the middle of its cycle, which royally screwed up its timing for my english muffin and one half was blackened while the other was pale and mushy. On the plus side, I didn't have to apply makeup in the dark so I don't look like Bozo the Clown, the dogs were all willing to eat their breakfasts, I had time to make a couple of eggs to go with my crummy muffin, I found good leftovers to bring for lunch, and I found both cats who had been outdoors all night without much trouble. And, when I left for work, it was only lightly raining--and didn't start to downpour until after I walked in the office door. So something about Mother Nature is on my side, in any case! It is always more comforting to look at a storm from the comfort of indoors, when the alternative it to be out in it trying to corral hypochondriac animals or dealing with monsoon flooding on one's porch.
In gardening news, I have been harvesting some sweet corn and rutabegas. The tomatoes are ripening, and aren't too mildewed--hopefully they won't get bad after today's rain! I am about sick of cucumbers, and I think I may start leaving them on peoples' porches in anonymous paper bags. To think I was worried that I wouldn't have enough for pickles! What the heck was I thinking?!?