Stormy in Seattle

Blustery, wet, gloomy, dark. When it's muddy outside, the dogs grow extra feet. I don't know how they do that.

It's not windy all that often in Seattle, so when it is, all the tree limbs that have been hanging on by a thread take the opportunity to land heavily on something inconvenient. Like our roof.

We awoke to a loud THUMP in the middle of the night last night, followed by another a short while later. Our old greyhound slept through it all. At 11 1/2, Ernie is getting a little hard of hearing. The ever-vigilant whippet heard it all right. He started shaking, and burrowed deeper under the covers. He's vigilant, but something of a coward. He doesn't like loud noises.

When, without canine backup, Scarecrow went to investigate, he didn't find any signs of mayhem inside the house. Since it was windy, we figured that one of the cottonwoods along the side of the house had dumped a limb onto our roof. Again. They're bad that way.

This morning Scarecrow did indeed find a limb on our roof. A really big one, several medium-big ones, and a whole bunch of little ones. Most of a fair-sized tree, looked like. And the hole they made when they landed. It's a small hole, and a couple of split shakes. They didn't do as much damage as they might have, but we'll still have to get it fixed.

They're saying it will be even windier tonight; gusts up to 50 miles an hour, they say. I think I'll hide under the blankets with the cowardly whippet.