The remnants of tropical storm Claudette moved north across the Florida panhandle and joined with a low-pressure system descending from the northern tier states. This brought very unstable air to the Tennessee Valley and scattered storms for much of the week.

Thursday, my wife was on one side of Chattanooga, and I was working on the other. Rain pelted my office building so hard people were looking up at the ceiling in astonishment. This happened not once, but twice. I informed my wife of the torrential rain that was falling. She sent a text message back informing me that it the sun was shining where she was, but she could see some clouds in the distance. The same day, a heavy band of rain crossed from central to eastern Tennessee. As it crossed the Tennessee River, I called my mother-in-law to make see if she had made it home before the storm. She had, and later told us that hardly any rain had fallen. Looking back at the radar pictures it was as if the river reached up and took all the water from the clouds and the whole thing dissipated before it travelled another ten miles east.

The thunder gods have behaved themselves thus far. The gods have grumbled in the distance (sometimes not so distant) at times, but we have had no limbs in the roadway or flooding of low-lying areas. My grass, on the other hand, is growing marvelously as I have not been able to cut it for almost two weeks.

As we enjoy the departure of the rain, my family does the unthinkable. We turn off the A/C and open the windows!

What a difference a day makes. I woke this morning to 60 degree temperatures. Yesterday at the same time, it was 70. I’m glad we opened the windows last night.