First, I hate thunderstorms.  Second, a December thunderstorm is a rare occurrence here.  So not having watched the news tonight, I wasn’t prepared. 

     I’d taken one step out of the bedroom when there were two very loud BOOMS.  You know those cartoons, where the cat is frightened, and the next thing you see is it hanging from the ceiling by its claws?  Yep, if I were a cat, that would’ve been me.

     I know I wasn’t the only who was startled too.  The two little dogs next door were raising hell.  What about my two, you ask.  They were snoring.  However, let someone walk by rattling keys or making some other trivial noise, and the pups will raise the roof.

     Then there’s the rain.  It has been pouring for hours.  If this were snow, I’d be shoveling forever.  I’m glad it’s rain.

    Enough of these arctic clippers, freezing cold, snow, and ice, enough I say. I figure that if I begin to spring clean this house it might bring with it warm temperatures. Yes, I know it’s wishful thinking on my part.

    However, there is a downside to this. With my luck, if I thoroughly scrub the floors, walls, everything I can scrub, we’ll get a huge thaw and my yard will become a muddy swamp. The dogs will romp through the worst of it and track the whole yard inside. Well, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead I am sick enough of this weather to gamble. I’ll take muddy paw prints over the cold any time.

    Today I cleaned the refrigerator, oven, stove top, microwave, and all the stuff that sits on the counters. This meant moving everything off the countertops and ridding the kitchen of some clutter. Yes, I said clutter. I don’t know why but my kitchen is a clutter magnet. It attracts it as the back porch light brings moths.

    Tomorrow I hope to finish the rest of the kitchen. Mind you, I said hope to. Cleaning and waxing the cabinets is time consuming so the floors might have to wait one more day.

   We had a lot of snow last night and then it rained on top of it. Today we had about four inches of slush. Imagine the looks on my dogs’ faces each time they went out and there was a change in what they were walking on.

    In the wee hours of the morning, several inches of snow had fallen and more was coming down. They practically skipped out the door to play in the light fluffy snow. Walking was easy and the tiny light flakes tickled when they landed on the dogs.

    Later Dear Hubby said the surface had a crust on it. They walked out on top of the hard snow and then their paws would pop through the stiff covering. Neither dog looked pleased with the changes. He said they weren’t eager to go out as often. Then it began to rain on top of it and they refused to go out in that stuff at all. Gavin stopped dead in the door and DH had to give him a push. He dashed out did his business and sprinted back in the house. He must have warned Patty because when DH went to take her out she dove into her crate forcing him to drag her out of it. At the back door, she did a handstand as he pushed on her butt to get her out. She too then did a mad dash out and a sprint back inside.

    Around five I took Gavin out, when his front feet hit the sidewalk, and the several inches of slush covering it, he almost did an about face, but urgency over-ruled. However, the look I got when he came back in made me tell him, “I don’t make the weather.” Patty was so disgusted with the slush I think she would’ve permitted us to put doggie boots on her and she’s not the type of dog you dress up.

    I can’t wait to see what looks we’ll get when they go out now. With the sun long gone and the temperature dipping, all that slush has turned into ice. Maybe they’d consent to doggie ice-skates or snowshoes.