......

HERE'S THE THING, DEAR READER. Last night the yard man and I nearly found ourselves winging our way to Jesus a whole day early!

We were not at home during most of the evening hours, but when we returned, the yard man went down to the basement and happened to hear a noise from the small room that houses the water heater. "Get down here, you've got to see this!" he hollered to me when he'd opened the door and looked in on the water heater.

Because his voice had an odd mixture of shock and awe, I didn't even take time to grab my camera (can you imagine!) and therefore I can't show you the flames that were leaping up the side of the metal tank when I laid eyes upon it! Indeed, Reader Dear...I could hardly believe it myself, but the thing was on fire!!

The water heater was sitting on a cement floor, and the walls are stone. But the ceiling...oh, Dear Reader, the ceiling is well-aged wood! I trust you can easily calculate how the two of us might have soon been heading off to another world ahead of the pack...
Though we didn't, of course, or I'd never be showing you this view from above of the brand new water heater on its way to installation ("view from above" meaning merely from a second-floor window).



And then, too, I wouldn't have been able to show you this hopeful bit of blue sky that I spotted in the late afternoon:
which grew into this:














But then there were still lowering clouds and bursts of rain here and there.














It wasn't until I glimpsed the rainbow, Dear Reader, that I called off the building of the ark.*

(Look closely and squint--it was fading and so was the
daylight when I snapped the photo, but you should be
able to spot the lovely arch!)

......
"I ran off with an Amishman," I told my yard man on the phone.

(In truth, Reader Dear, I just took him to Lowe's [my newly-found fix-it guy] and they were closing the store as we left.*How fortunate we didn't have to purchase all that lumber!)