Summer with a Twist

Summer with a Twist

It was an early June out at the ranch in western Indiana. The day was long and I had taken to the recliner to watch some evening news. The week had been hot and dry and I was hoping for a little rain and cooler temperatures to help with things in the field. Crop yields the year before were weak due to dry conditions that lingered summer long.

Well the 11 o'clock news came on and the first order of business was the nights top weather story. A very powerful storm system was moving down from Canada that promised to bring relief from the dry and heat. But this one was a bad one. A line of severe storms was stretching from Milwaukee down to the Texas pan handle. But this system was worse than most. It had a powerful low associated with it that was bringing down very cool air for June and it was also drawing up significant moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. This promised very intense storms all night long. The result will be cooler temperatures. We might even push 40 by morning after the storm passes. Just all that wind and intense rain might do damage to the crops. But at this point we need the rain and if this is the way we get it then so be it.

It was getting late and the storms weren't due in until around 1am to 2am. But when you live out in the country you do without things like air raid sirens. So as I have done so many times I left the tv on and dozed off on the recliner. 1:25am came and I was awaken by a loud clap of thunder. I could see through the curtains the light show going on outside. It was as if a hundred strobe lights were flashing independent of each other. It was the most brilliant display I had ever seen. The wind was picking up and the rain started to come down. The red alert bar on the bottom of the screen was scrolling a series of warnings from severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings, high wind warnings and travel advisories. It was an unusual assortment of warnings but to be expected with a system this big. The TV was showing an animated radar loop that showed this massive storm system moving in. It had only begun and by the looks of things I had several more hours to go. So I went and popped a few sleeping pills to help me get through the night.

After dozing off for a while on the recliner I woke up and drug myself out of the chair and off to the kitchen to get myself a drink. I never did like that after taste that this kind of medicine gives me. I'd guess I'd much rather get it from a hangover from drinking too much booze or something. I shuffle my feet off down to the kitchen. There was no need to turn on the lights in the house. Mother nature was providing enough on her own. I got my drink and headed back to the recliner. My mind was still in a cloud from the sleeping pills. The flashes of light seemed to overlap and the sounds from outside were all muffled. It was a strange sound that couldn't quite explain. The claps of thunder were a bit muffled and there was a constant rushing sound of wind and rain. But everything got blended together so it was really impossible to make anything out.

I made my way back to the recliner and realized I forgot to adjust my air conditioner settings. My comfortable 67 degrees worked during the day but with the storm it got to be a bit much. Too tired to drag myself into the other room I just gragged the quilt off of the sofa and layed myself back down on the recliner and turned the tv off for the night. I figured if I needed to I'd just grab the remote and turn it back on if things got interesting.

I dozed off once again and slept for a bit. Like the first time in the evening I was awaken by a loud clap of thunder. I jumped to a sititng position and my heart was pounding from the scare. I quickly composed myself and picked up the remote from the end table next to me. Before I could even turn on the TV I felt that something odd had happened. I looked at the cable box and it said the time was 8:47am. Well it was still dark out so the power had obviously gone out. But that was strange. The cable box always reset itself after a power failure. Without hesitation I turned on the tv and the AM news was on. The little clock at the bottom right corner of the screen showed that it was ineed 8:47 am. The medicine must have been messing with me. The temperature on the bottom of the screen read 28 degrees.

Ok I need to snap out of it. Something isn't right. But at the moment the news reporters are talking about numerous accidents around down. So I got up and walked into the kitchen to make myself some coffee in order to wake up. Things just weren't making sense and it had to be the sleeping pills. I mean after all it was June and almost 9:00am. I't had to be light out. Maybe I was dreaming. Maybe it wasn't June. Maybe it was really January and it just hadn't gotten light out yet. That would explain the 28 degrees afterall and why it was so cold in the house.

I walked into the kitchen and out of the corner of my eye I see the calendar hanging on the wall. June. I try to shake off the fuzziness in my head. I walk over to the back door and open it up so I could look out the window of the storm door. It was dark out and the back window was all fogged up. I went over to the sink and got a towel and went back to the door and turned on the back yard light. I proceeded to wipe the window down and stopped half way through. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. What I saw out my back window was something out of a dream. Or perhaps being a farmer it was out of a nightmare. It was dark outside because of the blinding snow. You couldn't see any hint of where the sidewalk was or the flowerbeds were. You couldn't make out anything. I could barely see my car parked off to the side. The snow was drifted half way up the door. The only thought I could manage to muster was "I don't think the crops are going to do to well this year"