After the Storm

Blue Skies and White Clouds

Yesterday (Sunday), we had grey skies and constant rain as tropical storm Hilary moved through our area.  The gale force winds that were forecast didn't actually happen in my neighborhood, at least, and I am very thankful that they didn't!  There were some strong gusts of wind from time to time, however, and I kept looking rather anxiously at the eucalyptus tree in the front yard, but, fortunately, not only did the tree stay upright, not even a single branch broke off!  I am very, very grateful for that!  

The Front Yard After the Storm

It was still raining when I went to bed at 2:30 a.m., but, the sun was shining when I woke up later this morning. 

The garden got a very good soaking and apart from the full buckets I had kept out to collect the rain water and a couple of puddles of water collected in low spots on the driveway,  the rainwater has all drained off or been absorbed into the ground.  

Mama Cat Enjoys a Drink of Rainwater

The round dish in the background is Mama Cat's water bowl; but, of course, she preferred to drink the water in the buckets!  

The only casualty from the storm was this branch that had fallen from the bottle brush tree:

Fallen Branch

As branches go, it is just a twig!  Thank goodness for that!  Other areas and cities have suffered more damage from this storm system; I feel very grateful and blessed to have been spared from all that!

I took a few more garden photos, but, I'll do a Garden in August post, later.

The power stayed on after it came back, last night, and there has not been any power or internet disruptions, today.  

I did a load of laundry in the morning (my bed sheets) and hung everything up to dry.  I will remake the bed when the sheets are dry - I am now down to one set of summer sheets, until I make over the full sized fitted sheet to turn it into a queen sized sheet.  I need to make that a priority.

Today's mail included a second document from a different insurance company than the one I use, with my address, but, someone else's name!  My initial reaction had been to write no such person at this address and return to sender.  However, since I was recently informed that a medical center I had used in the past had been hacked into and patient records and information might have been compromised, I was worried that there might have been some identity theft involved.  So, I opened the document (a policy change document) and discovered that while the cover letter had my address, the document inside had a different address, but, one digit in the house number had been changed.  Probably it was entered into the system wrongly.  In any case, I called the company, which was located in Illinois and the person who answered the phone was very confused as to why I should have received this document!  I said the cover letter had my address on it and gave her the policy number and she was able to locate their client's address in their system.  She told me to disregard the two documents I had received and to destroy them.  

I finally made the coconut roti last night and I had some with the last of the chicken curry for my brunch, today.  Dinner will be rice and ground turkey keema curry with some of my homemade tomato chutney.  I will make my meal plan later.

Today, I am grateful for:

- The worst of the storm passed me by; I had no damage to the house from either the storm or the earthquake
- The garden got a good soaking
- The power outage didn't last long enough to cause any of the food in the fridge or freezer to spoil
- All the emails and comments from my blog friends checking on me

- The insurance document I received was in error and not a sign of identity theft!

Plans for the rest of the day include taking the trash cans to the curb for collection in the morning and making my weekly meal plan.  

How was your Monday?  What are your plans for Tuesday?