Gutter patrol

After a wonderful day in Lund enjoying the last sunny day of summer, it rained today. Really rained. It rained all night, and stopped a bit this morning, just enough to have breakfast on the terrace (wearing a sweater).

In the afternoon a thunderstorm came across, dumping buckets of water on us. And the gutters, which had just been

cleaned out of all the crap, overflowed, crashing all that water on the terrace. The gutters needed to be cleaned again, and pronto.

So I got my bathing suit on and went out to get the ladder. At a clap of thunder I reconsidered the sanity of climbing a metal ladder during an electrical storm. So I stood under the overhang, a curtain of a waterfall gushing in front of me, and waited until the storm drew on.

Lucky I learned as a kid to figure out how far away a storm is: Lightning - 1001 - 1002 - 1003 - .... - Thunderclap. Counting the seconds between lightening and thunder gives you the distance away in miles, as sound travels slower than light.

The storm was a good 5 miles out but it was still raining buckets when I ventured out, getting wet to the bone within seconds. And sure thing, the gutter drains were all filled with leaves and birch tree seed, horrible stuff. I swear birch trees produce a million of these things every hour or so during the summer. You can't eat outside without getting them on your food.

Since I was wet anyway I cleaned out the other gutters while I was at it. It sure felt good to come back in and dry off in front of the fireplace. Yes, a fire in August, what do you expect when the weather is miserable like this?