Mamacita says:  It is WINDY tonight.  The kind that turns an umbrella inside-out, for those of you who carry umbrellas.  Personally, I’d rather drown standing up.

We are NOT rednecks;  I swear to you we’re not. We’re fairly refined. We bathe regularly, have all our teeth, and use dictionary words. Thesaurus words, even.

We do, however, have a big pile of corrugated sheet metal in the back yard. It embarrasses me sometimes, because it’s really hard to conceal a big pile of corrugated sheet metal. Nothing affordable in the WalMart spring nursery will cover it up, and a tarp would only make it look worse. Besides, the tarp is spread over the tractor.

Sometimes, though, having a big pile of sheet metal can be a musical experience. I am not talking about the little neighbor boys banging on it with mallets, or the melodic WHAM* we hear as big trees fall on it. I am talking about windy nights, like tonight.

I admit to you now that the sound of this intense wind rushing across the pile of sheet metal in the back yard is every bit as soothing as wind chimes.

And what, you may ask, is a pile of corrugated sheet metal doing in the back yard?

It’s vibrating with the force of the wind, that’s what it’s doing.

Oh, you mean, why is it there in the first place?

I don’t know. I’ve never known.  Tim bought it and put it there several years ago, for some kind of project. I don’t think he remembers what it was.  If you ask him, he just says “It’s there for a reason.”

The nature of the reason is beyond me.

But when it’s violently windy, like right now, the sheet metal sounds like those huge wind chimes that nobody can afford.  I guess that’s as good a reason as any.

I hope this wind doesn’t blow the tarp off the tractor. I hate chasing it down.  Rats – there it goes.

*Not to be confused with “Wake me up before you go-go.”