From: groundhog@gohdnu.org (Michael Donner)
Subject: Weather Report
Date: April 7, 1997
> Meanwhile, happy trails. (Are you going on a book promo?)
Thanks. I think so.
> How was your weather last week?
Sunday was fine enough for Hannah to drive my truck back to school. Monday morning was fine too but the post office had gotten flooded overnight by a bum water heater. [This was the first sign something was up but I didn't think anything of it. When the plumber arrived unaware of the impending Apocalypse he informed me I'd have no hot water til next day. This I could easily accept as a sign of cosmic blowout. Then an old friend now living in heaven who used to share my mailbox and stopped getting mail years ago showed up as it were by flyer from the "Institute of World Affairs."]
Midmorning I checked the weather channel to see how the sunset and comet gazing might be shaping up. It seems a little piece of the jetstream had just then broken off, surprising the weather lady, and it was now circling my house. The vortex grew all day into hurricane force guests of wind plus thunderbangers. Whiteout by afternoon. Blackout by evening. Champagne by candle light. Two or three feet of drifting wet snow by dawn Tuesday (April Fools). Trees that hadn't been blown down by wind or split by lightning were falling under the weight of the heavenly blanket. More guests arrived. We sat around the campfire (a propane stove in the living room). The plumber didn't come back for days as we had no water to fix. By Thursday everything was "normal" -- though the jubilee continues here til May Day, when I expect to take it on the road.
Mike
From: groundhog@gohdnu.org (Michael Donner)
Subject: Addition to Weather Report &c
Date: April 12, 1997
> Wow. Now that's a party. Too bad the sunspot was late, so it couldn't
> bring aurora borealis.
Well allowing for the speed of light and magnetism back and forth the sun flare tsunami outbreak and eventual aurora were actually a direct hit on the new moon that was originally divined and scheduled as culmination for the weeklong party.
Evidently this was the cosmic inaugural commencement fireworks extravaganza.
And my already long but increasingly spectacular volley of Paddleball with the Universe keeps me glued to the spot now for the full month of April folly right thru May Day in the Come What May expectation of still more miraculous bounces
Mike