What's The Weather?

Since I have been living in the mountains, and especially on the top of Majestic Mountain in Boomer, NC, I have noticed something. We have all the latest ways of checking the weather - on the boob tube, on our Tablets, on our iPhones, heck, we even have a little contraption I ordered that the mariners used to use called a perfect indicator of what the weather will be. It's a clear tube with water in it that has crystals that float around that tells you what the weather will be.

But, with all this space age information and technology, it doesn't make a dime's worth of difference if you live on Majestic Mountain! Now, mind you, I'm not complaining. It's just different....I mean, I used to live in Cary/Raleigh and the weather was pretty predictable. 

Just about two weeks ago, the forecast was for clear skies with nothing out of the ordinary to expect. But, as my wife and I were sitting upstairs working on our prospective computer devices, we noticed the picture on the wall shaking. We knew it was windy outside, but just didn't know how bad! I ran downstairs to see exactly what was going on. As I opened the sliding glass doors, the wind that came through felt like a hurricane or tornado was on the porch! I bet that wind was blowing 80 mph!

Now, Dianne has lived up here for about 5 years and she was used to this wind but this was the worst she had seen. During the times I had been up before getting married, the winds would howl at night like a hurricane coming through - but - Dianne said that was not unusual and helped calm my nerves down as I was not used to this wind.

But getting back to the story. I had bought a knocked down kitchen island that day and took all the parts out and laid them out on the porch, knowing full well they would be fine there.....based on the prediction of perfectly clear skies. But, when I opened that sliding door, I knew I had to go bring all those pieces inside. I didn't want them to get wet. As I was running, me and Dianne both, to bring all the pieces in, that wind was so bad it blew a few of the pieces down the hill. The rest of the porch was a mess as well as items were thrown all over the place. The dogs in the pen outside the house were howling as well. In the backyard, we had a table and chairs. The table had ceramic tiles in it. The wind actually flipped one of those tiles up and over and landed in the same spot. Two of the tiles were broken and the chairs were strewn all over the backyard. I tell you, I was glad when those winds finally died down.

Yep, the weather on our mountain is unique. We got down to 1 degree this past Monday, the water went out but think goodness the power didn't. No snow but it was cold enough without it. It's a pain when that happens, especially when you can't flush a toilet. Thank goodness Dianne had enough smarts to fill some pots and pitchers with water plus we had some jugs of water in the storage building - that were frozen! 

So when someone ask me from now on, What's the Weather? I can truly say.......just wait a little bit and it will change....literally. Because we live on that beautiful but unpredictable Majestic Mountain!