Little did I know as I blabbed aimlessly on and on yesterday with some vague undirected notion about being half-sunk and doomed to either fly away or sink further further further into the chilly depths of middle-aged winter during a brisk December walk under deceptively blue skies down the hill to the harbor — whew, I need to take a breath here — that wild weather was headed our way.
Last night was nuts.
I woke multiple times to rattling windows and sheets of rain and screaming wind and the oddly calm bhhhaaaaahhhmp of distant foghorns through it all all all to which my response was ... well, I just rolled over and went back to sleep until about 8 when I finally made my way downstairs and out the door to pick up the newspaper on the front walk only to find that the day was wondrously miraculously blue bright sunny and balmy.
Behold the evidence, as the weather in Little Rhody was so bizarre that it made the national news (in a suitably small way):
And now I think I'll be quiet for a change and let the pictures tell the tale of the bike ride I took this afternoon out toward Hanging Rock and Second (Sachuest) Beach in Middletown ... although the pictures can't tell half the tale because my camera battery died long before I ran out of things to relay about this exceptionally lovely day after an exceptionally stormy night with rows upon rows upon rows of waves rolling rolling rolling in and crashing — no, whhhhooooosssshhhing — on the warmly wintry shore as I walked along among beachwalkers and dogwalkers and windsurfers and kitesurfers and convertibles in the parking lot and a guy who was jogging in his bare feet and boxer shorts because, gee, it really really felt like summer in RI today ... didn't it??
RI Weird Weather
Providence, R.I. (AP) — The temperature hit a record high in Providence after an overnight storm caused high winds and coastal flooding. National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Simpson says the temperature hit 65 degrees Thursday morning at T.F. Green Airport, breaking the old record of 63 set in 1932. The normal high for Dec. 3 is 46. Simpson says there was some coastal flooding in Rhode Island and Massachusetts around the time of high tide at 8 a.m. Wind gusts hit 56 miles an hour. National Grid says about 9,000 Rhode Island customers lost power in the storm, but by midmorning, most of them were back online. (Copyright 2009 by The Associate Press.)
And now I think I'll be quiet for a change and let the pictures tell the tale of the bike ride I took this afternoon out toward Hanging Rock and Second (Sachuest) Beach in Middletown ... although the pictures can't tell half the tale because my camera battery died long before I ran out of things to relay about this exceptionally lovely day after an exceptionally stormy night with rows upon rows upon rows of waves rolling rolling rolling in and crashing — no, whhhhooooosssshhhing — on the warmly wintry shore as I walked along among beachwalkers and dogwalkers and windsurfers and kitesurfers and convertibles in the parking lot and a guy who was jogging in his bare feet and boxer shorts because, gee, it really really felt like summer in RI today ... didn't it??
