Rainy Afternoon at Cold Stream / Young Buck

My husband had a dentist appointment in Philipsburg in the afternoon, and the big plan was that he would drop me off by the Old Union (or Mud) Church on Presqueisle Street, and I'd walk over to the Cold Stream Dam. 

This wasn't just an exam or a cleaning; there were fillings the dentist needed to do, and it was likely to take a while. After the appointment, my husband would stop by Weis (a grocery store), which is next door to the dentist, to pick up a few things, including more of that diet birch beer (bottoms up, Grammy Carvell!) that I enjoy so much in summertime.

The problem was that the weather map was showing a major storm system arriving in Philipsburg just as we did. It looked dicey. I was likely to get a soaking. But my intrepid pals Tiny Tiger and the Moose hopped into my daysack, I grabbed my camera and a water and an umbrella, and off we went.

It was raining at about 5% when he dropped me at the church, and I made it a quick visit. I was only there for about 10 minutes, and as the rain picked up, I knew I needed to scoot. I made haste, and in about 15 minutes, I was at the dam. The rain was at 50%, and then 100%, and then it was thundering and giving us a lightning show. I took shelter under a tiny pavilion that was just the right size for the Tiger, the Moose, and me.

I sat and read my book a while, as it rained. The book I'm reading is The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus. I picked it up off the new books rack at the library, as I really loved that last octopus book I read. Oddly enough, I am well into the book and we haven't seen a single octopus yet! I'm not sure what to think of that. But I'll keep hoping to see one soon!*

And all around me, the fishermen kept fishing in the rain, and the Canada geese, which were plentiful, kept doing their thing, too. You may see a few more pictures from Cold Stream on Instagram. When I got there, the geese were all in the water, looking like a flotilla. 

Then they edged over to the land, and emerged, first their long necks (it's the Loch Ness monster, but with stripes on their heads), and then their bodies. They fed, and napped, and when the rain finally stopped, an old man showed up and sat on the bench and fed them cracked corn, which they seemed to like very much.

The thunderstorm dropped the temperature from 82 degrees (which is what it was at 1 p.m.) to 70 degrees (by 3 p.m.), and for a minute or two, I almost wished for a little more clothing. But of course, the sun came out again and it started to warm back up a bit. My husband picked me up and we headed for home.

In separate news, there are several deer who have been hanging around our yard. I think it was originally a family group of a doe and two yearling fawns. Now we see one or two of them at a time, usually just one. 

The one yearling keeps coming to graze on the yard like he thinks he is a rabbit or something. For the first time, we noticed tiny nubby little antlers, so we know that he is a young buck. I walked out the front door with my camera and he looked up, dismissed me, seemed to say, "Nobody here but us rabbits!" I told my husband that if he keeps this up, we might have to name him Thumper. There is a photo of our beautiful young buck in the extras.

I have two photos so here are two soundtrack songs. First, for the Cold Stream Dam adventure, I've got Bob Dylan, with Shelter from the Storm. And second, for the beautiful young buck who is hanging out in our yard, I've got John Lennon, with Beautiful Boy.

Bonus: more Philipsburg stories . . .
A walking tour of historic Philipsburg, PA
Inside the old Mud Church / Moose: no longer alone

Quite possibly related to the deer in the extras . . .
Nobody here but us chickens
Nobody here but us flamingos

*Update on the octopus (at the risk of providing spoilers): for those who are curious, the octopus finally shows up on page 326 out of 368 pages. This is not by any means a book about octopi. Rather it is a coming-of-age tale, for the most part. I knew you'd want to know.