Sitting on my Patio

May 16 Sitting on my patio

I was sitting on my patio this morning
on the shade side of the building
sipping coffee,
enjoying the blue sky view,
when two mallard ducks flew by,
honking all the way,
heading northwest,
in a hurry, it appeared.
I tried to imagine what the
urgency might be about.
Black Tuesday at the duck mall?
Family emergency?
Late for an appointment?
Or work?
Duck police responding to a call?
I couldn’t come up with a good answer.
Maybe that’s just how ducks are on a
pleasant Tuesday morning.




Storms

It looks we are in for storms tonight.
Pea sized hail with the occasional
pearl onion is knocking on my
living room windows right now
like a bird pecking at its reflection.
The radar shows a train of storms
some 300 miles long coming our way
from Kansas about to ride
on its rails through
central and southeast Nebraska.
It can take hours for these
to pass, one cell after another,
in varying intensity.
First you hear the thunder,
a soft rumble for a while,
then it gets louder and sharper,
and wind gusts blast through,
and rain falls heavier and heavier
and then eases.
That cell moves on
and a cooler quiet settles in
for a time and then
you hear that distant thunder rumble
again. Right now, it's quiet again and
I'm watching the radar trying to
determine what's coming next --
listening for the next thunder.