To hail with summer.

We're having "one last blast of winter," as the weathermen told us. The temperature today will get no higher than 70 degrees, and tonight will be around 50. To make sure we were all paying attention, we had hail this morning. Honest-to-goodness hail. Just before dawn this morning, we heard thunder, then the sky opened up and pelted the screen-porch roof with bits of hail.

It was warm enough last night to have the cats sleeping on the screen-porch, but as soon as I heard the noise of that hail, I jumped out of bed to let them in. Mickey Kitty is afraid of the sound of rain on that roof, and I figured that the rat-a-tat-tat of the hail would really send him hiding under the wicker sofa on the porch. As soon as Mickey Kitty heard me by the door, he ran out from his hiding place and put his nose by the bottom of the door..... as soon as I opened that door from the porch to the breakfast room, he was racing into the house to get away from the noise of the hail. The sky is falling! And it's bringing down all the planets with it!

The hail didn't last long... just long enough to make a racket on that roof and get us out of bed. So we've been up and awake since around 5:30 or so. It's going to be a long day.

Last night, we had a raccoon in the backyard. Gracie started barking as soon as the raccoon put a paw into the yard, and my husband opened the back door so she could scare the raccoon away. I hate when he does that because I don't trust any of those raccoons not to turn and try to swipe their claws against whoever is chasing them.

The raccoon jumped up on the gate separating the breezeway from the backyard, and Gracie jumped up against the gate trying to get the raccoon. The raccoon was so scared that he tried to grab onto the vines that are growing up the side of the garage.... the vines are strong, but not strong enough to hold a twenty-plus-pound raccoon, so down came part of the vines, down came the raccoon, and thankfully, Gracie wasn't on the same side of the gate as the raccoon.

So here I am, typing at 9:30 in the morning. I've already done two loads of laundry, changed the sheets on the bed, ironed some shirts and a tablecloth, and dusted all the furniture. By noon-time, I'll be ready for a nap. As I said, it's going to be a long day.