Blessed silence and oh, there's our umbrella

The last two days were busy ones here at Casa Weber.

Around suppertime on Monday, Stephanie arrived from North Carolina with the three older grandchildren to spend a few nights and swim in the pool.

Dagny therefore spent the night with us on Monday night too, so as not to miss a single moment of summer fun with the cousins.

It was a hot day on Tuesday and the kids were splish-splashing by nine o'clock in the morning.

Stephanie and I supervised and I even got in with the children for an hour or so. Then it was time to make a hot dog lunch and serve it poolside at our heavy metal patio table that seats six.

It's shaded by a market umbrella which stands upright through a hole in the center of the table and fits into a solid base on the ground beneath the table.

It's a tilting umbrella and we learned years ago, the hard way, that if you tilt your umbrella on a windy day, the wind can cause the umbrella to tip over your entire table.

So we don't tilt it on windy days. Smart. And speaking in general terms, we've also learned that once you've finished using the umbrella on any given day, it's best to wind it down and secure it with an elastic-with-plastic-balls thing that we use to keep it closed.

And most days, we remember to do that. So smart.

Except that yesterday, it was so hot that we may have left the umbrella unfurled. After hot dogs and chips and watermelon and soda and so forth, the kids paddled around for a bit longer and then I made Dagny go down for a nap.

Which she did without the ghost of a fuss.

The other children were allowed to swim for an additional half-hour but by two thirty, I said the pool was closed and they had to lie down for a while too, whether they slept or simply rested.

The reason being, one, it was direct sizzle on the pool and even though they were wearing long-sleeved shirts to protect their backs and arms and their mother had slathered sun scream (Dagny's term) on their faces more than once during the course of the day, I was worried they'd get sunburn.

Two, we were going for dinner at Texas Roadhouse at eight o'clock to celebrate Chad's birthday. Our entire party would number sixteen what with Chad's family and ours, and it would be a late night because after the party we planned to drive out to Chad and Erica's house to see their new wood floors.

So it was that the pool area was left dripping with soggy towels, littered with floaties, and baking in the June sun for the remainder of the afternoon.

Seven o'clock in the evening found me at home alone (except for Rizzo) getting ready for our dinner out. TG had gone to church visitation; Stephanie and the kids had gone with Audrey and Dagny to see their new wood floors and other improvements in their new house.

Everybody would meet up again at the restaurant.

Only, at about that time, there blew up a thunderstorm that was not only one of the stronger ones we've seen this season, but one of the longer ones too. This was not your average thunder-dunder.

It raged for at least fifty minutes. Trees thrashed and floaties flew into the landscaping. A towel ended up at the bottom of the pool.

Around seven forty-five I texted the girls that I wasn't sure I was keen to drive in the weather. Maybe I'd be just a couple of minutes late.

Soon afterwards I heard the cicadas screaming from the trees once more, signaling that the rain had abated and the storm had moved off to the east.

You don't hear a peep out of those bugs during wild weather but the second it's over? Commence cacophony.

Once I was ready and just waiting to leave, I went to look out of the double mostly-glass doors in the kitchen that lead out to the deck and pool.

And I noticed that something was missing. Our market umbrella was gone. The outdoor table looked so odd without it.

I knew right away what had happened. The umbrella had been lifted -- fully open as it was -- by the wind and deposited somewhere. But it wasn't in the pool area, and although I went around the house, both upstairs and down, looking out of every window, it didn't appear to be anywhere else in our yard either.

Oh dear.

TG and I looked again, with a flashlight, all around the pool area after we got home late that night. We looked over the privacy fence on one side, into the yard of our neighbors to the east. The umbrella wasn't there.

This morning I even went far enough from the back of the house that I could see up onto the roof.

The umbrella wasn't there.

The children (minus Dagny) swam for about twenty minutes this morning before being chased from the pool by raindrops. It was time for them to leave for home anyway.

As I was walking with Stephanie, Melanie, Allissa, and Andrew to their van, Stephanie looked back and spotted the corner of what appeared to be an umbrella peeking from the side-yard privacy fence beside the house of our neighbors to the west.

Is that it? she said.

I looked. And it was. Hallelujah. Not only did our cream-with-black-border umbrella appear safe and unharmed, but it hadn't flown somewhere far away and done some sort of damage to someone else's property.

Which would've been most unfortunate and to make it worse, we wouldn't have known who or where or what, in order to make amends.

As it was, our umbrella, once lifted by the strong wind, had been carried only about thirty feet and deposited in a small area between their house and our common fence where it appears our neighbors toss things like coolers and lawn chairs and maybe even possum traps.

Ah well. It's found. When TG comes home, I'll show him where the umbrella is. He can ring the neighbor's doorbell and point and explain, and retrieve our stray property.

I am busy enjoying the unique and special quiet of grands-gone-home and taking the opportunity to read a book.

At least I was, until I went outside to take pictures of our found umbrella, and to tell you about it.

And that is all for now.

=0=0=0=

Happy Wednesday

Comments

[Mari]

Well, that's a lot of excitement! Most of it good, but that storm sounds crazy. I'm glad you found the umbrella.
The Weber's certainly know how to party and celebrate! I would love to see all the grandkids playing together. I know it makes your heart happy to see them all together. I'm so impressed that Dagny willingly went to take a nap, because I know that playing would have been her first choice.
"Sun-screamed" - so cute!
Last, but not least - hooray for new floors!

[Sally]

May I just interrupt here and say:

Every word that Mari wrote, above, were my thoughts and had she not written the comment, mine would have been identical.

Enjoy your quiet, my friend. I'm sure it won't last long with you guys being party animals. :)

xoxo

[Judy]

You guys have more darn fun!!