Change of Plans

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The abyss of the blue sky slowly gave way to the billowing gray clouds of the coming storm. At first it was as though someone had stretched cotton across the sky, like the cob webs we buy for Halloween. That soon gave way to a couple of small mushroom clouds approaching from just beyond the horizon.

As the wind began to blow a little harder, the sky quickly grew dark as the thunderheads began to consume all I could see. In the distance the booming echoed amongst the river bluffs, like a far off battle drawing ever nearer.

As the temperature began to drop there was a slight chill in the air. The wind became still and it looked as though the storm would narrowly miss us. For a few moments there was a serene calm, the wind had subsided, and the storm looked as though it was moving off to the west.

Without warning, dime-sized hailstones began bouncing through the grass and the tapping of the ice as it pelted the house rose to a deafening pitch.

The rain did not slowly begin; instead it was an instant torrent. The white veil was thick enough to obscure the view even across the street. The camping trip we would have been leaving for was surely cancelled now, or at least postponed until next weekend. Disappointing, but nothing we could do about it. We must work around Mother Nature as she definitely does not work around us.

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