After a day of record-setting heat and several weeks of that unfamiliar element, sunshine, today dawned gray. The sky is a solid, featureless mass. For hours, thunder has rumbled near-constantly off in the distance.
No lightning visible. No dramatic boomers. Just a perpetual drumroll, first from the southwest, then from the northeast. Ceaseless.
Its full day outside but the house lights are on, pallid, greenish, and barely seeming to illuminate anything. No mere human-generated watts and volts can penetrate the preternatural gloom.
On goes the perpetual rolling of the sky, moving closer now. I get an inkling of why primitive people conceived of gods — and feared them.
I like days like that — in general, I don’t find them gloomy at all. Well, I grew up with that. I’ve now spent more of life here than there, so I wonder a bit whether I’d really like living there again.
FYI
I sent you a gift of $20 for your roof on evening of Aug 5th & 1 to Joel. By the next morning, a bunch of fraudulent charges started running up on my Discover card # via paypal. You may have got caught up in it. If you don’t get the $ let me know and I’ll replace it as soon as my new account is up. I have never used paypal before, so I suspect either Joel’s or your account may be compromised. Best check.
Joe in Reno
Joe — I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’ve contacted you via email to get some more info. I haven’t seen any sign of problems on my account, but I will check with PayPal. Have you also contacted PayPal to see if possibly your account got hacked?
Don’t you just love that marine air? A welcome relief to hot and dry…
Joe, might check your own computer. Do you have a good virus checker on it? Is it windows? Claire, do you see his contribution? I wonder if Joe was victim of a phishing attack.
I had some charges made on my card after paying a legitimate online vendor once. I suspect someone working for that vendor grabbed my card data did the deed. I called the credit card company, and they took the hit for me.
Paul — Yes, the return of marine air is welcome (for a while), but yesterday morning was so strange it really felt like the end of the world!
I do see Joe’s contribution (thank you again, Joe) and I don’t see any evidence of compromise on my PayPal account, which I’ve been using pretty thoroughly lately. The symptoms do point, unfortunately, to Joe’s account being the one that got compromised, however it may have happened. But I appreciate the heads up.
Joe in Reno – Sorry that happened to you. Please don’t let a moron ruin your good nature and generous spirit. The world needs more people like you. 🙂