Severe storm; spice store, "wildlife"- Day 725 (Yr 2, Day 359)

Bismarck, ND

If anyone's keeping track of the Day and Year I have listed in all my titles, I think the math went wrong somewhere along the lines, as today would be Year 2, Day 365.  Day 1 was actually June 23rd so I'm 6 days off (last year I said it was June 25th.  We closed on the house on the 23rd but the funds cleared the bank and we were able to officially purchase the RV on the 25th.  So which day is it?  Think I'll use the 23rd because the other 2 days was really just waiting for the funds to clear).  I adjusted it here, but I am not going backwards to find the error (tempting as it is, being the perfectionist that I am).

Severe storm - this morning, around 4:00 am, we were awakened by our weather monitoring station alert going off, warning us of a severe storm in the area, producing golf size hail and wind gusts up to 70mph.  I have to confess that I was really scared as the storm approached.  The last time I felt this fear was during Hurricane Sandy.  I don't recall ever seeing such frequent lightening - it just didn't stop to take a break!  Interestingly, we didn't really hear very many crashes of thunder, so I don't believe it actually passed overhead.  We did experience hail, though.  You can't even begin to imagine the sound of hail on a tin can!  I was sure it was going to rip open the roof.  We were very fortunate that we came out of it unscathed.

Today, after finding a little break in my workload, we went out shopping.  Mitch needed to buy yet another pair of work boots and decided that rather than spending $50 on cheap quality Walmart brand, he would go to a place that specializes in boots and other garments designed for the construction industry - something that is going to last and has a warranty on it.  It cost almost $200 but hopefully it will be a good investment.  This place was in the downtown area, and adjacent to the shoe store was a place called Pinch & Pour (www.pinchandpour.com) which was having a soft opening.  As you may or may not recall from my trips to Savannah and St. Augustine, one of my favorite places to shop are novelty stores that specialize in spices, oils and teas (and, of course, wine and craft spirits).  This place doesn't do tea, but they do all kinds of vinegars.  They have cubes of bread out, and lots of little cups so you can taste everything before purchasing.  I was truly in 7th Heaven!  It was a tough choice, but we landed up buying olive oil infused with wild mushrooms and sage and a pineapple white vinegar, which when mixed with soy sauce, will be a wonderful marinade.  Tonight I rubbed the oil on our tuna steaks for the grill -- I'll try to remember to write about how it turned out.

Afterwards, we stopped at a pizza place for a quick bite of lunch.  I really miss NY pizza!  Then we went to Walmart for some groceries (sadly, they have a better fruit & veggie dept than the supermarkets.  I can't wait until July when the farmers market comes to town!).  While in the store, my client called me with an urgent request, so when we returned, Mitch helped me unpack and put up the Shabbat soup while I did some work.  We were going to go swimming afterwards, but we both felt too lazy and decided to watch some tv instead, before finishing up Shabbat preparations.  Hopefully tomorrow will be good weather for swimming (as I write this at 8:00 pm -- it's still light out at 9:45 pm -- I just saw a family with little kids walking in their bathing suits, carrying pool noodles).

Wildlife - I should have that in quotes.  We saw a pheasant walk across the lawn, and there is a baby bunny that hops around here.  Wish I had a camera around my neck or a phone with a good camera.