I weathered my first significant atmospheric event in the duplex last night. Strong gusts, pounding rain and disturbing thunder competed with one another all night long.

Walking around in the daylight to survey the impact, I recognized the plastic cover I’d put over the front door’s exterior, all-weather light bulb; half-submerged, barely floating in a mysterious, new river of slow-moving, muddy water.

I grabbed a long piece of scrap wood left over from one of last weeks projects to fish it out. Amazing. The adhesive holding the price tag was still holding. I’d tried in vain to remove the tag when I screwed it into the rusty fixture.  Perhaps if I had used that same adhesive to install the cover,  it would still be where I intended it to be; protecting the expensive, energy-efficient, no-bugs bulb. No, it is now is more like a water-sampling container from the lab. What is in this grimy sludge anyway? Hmm…

The adhesive used on the “General Purpose, Damage-Free, Hanging Hooks was not nearly as reliable.  That loud sound of rolling thunder was actually the wire shelf in the bathroom detaching  itself from the wall and crashing down onto the toilet tank. The broken contents were rolling all over the floor. Of course the toilet seat was not closed. I got to participate in toilet bowl fishing.

My home-made screen door protecter that I’d crafted after immediately putting a hole in my newly installed  screen door is gone with the wind. It’s probably floating in some neighbor’s new sludge river. Maybe later today, I’ll discover it and truly learn which way the wind blows and water flows here.

I should just take my scrap-wood fishing pole along in case I spot it. I’m getting the lay of the land here. This house has weathered many storms. I have too. Game on.