The Rain is Good for Everything but My Hair and the Ceiling at Belk

Rain!  We finally got rain after months of dryness.  There were cracks in our yard so big I was worried that one of the chickens might fall right in.  And the horses have been wandering around in the dusty field scavenging for anything worth eating.

So yesterday when we got stuck in town after church, unable to drive because I couldn’t see out the windshield with the rain pounding down, we rejoiced.  I had the 3 younger boys with me.  They needed shoes so I decided to take them to get some before I head out of town this week to go to the Focused Conference.  It turned out to be a good thing because one of my sons has apparently been torturing his poor feet.

We got to Payless and I suggested we measure his feet on that metal thing (which I Googled and found it’s called a Brannock device).  It turned out that he needs a size 6 1/2 shoe but he’s been wearing size 4 1/2.  In my defense, he only mentioned that he thinks he needs new shoes a couple of weeks ago.  How am I supposed to know your toes are squished if you don’t tell me?!  Yesterday I asked him, “Have your feet been hurting?!”  He said, “No ma’am.  I just noticed recently that my toes are kind of pushed toward the end of my shoe.”  Yep, we homeschool.

I got him a couple of pair and promised to pick up another pair soon, but Payless was kinda low on their stock.  My other 2 boys also each got a new pair of shoes whether they need them or not because the mom-guilt rolled over onto them.

It was after we left Payless that we decided to pull over where it was safe since the rain was obstructing my view.  I may not notice tight shoes, but I can tell when you can’t see the road.  We started off just sitting in a parking lot, then decided to pull around to a Belk that was nearby and kill time there instead of just sitting in the car looking for nearby Pokémon.

One of the boys needed some shirts so I told him to grab what he liked off of the clearance rack and go try them on while the rest of us waited outside the dressing room.  Just as we were getting bored we heard a crash!  Water had started pouring in through the ceiling about 30 feet from us.  And when I say pouring I mean it was like a waterfall.  One of the ceiling tiles had crashed to the ground and that let the water out from where it must have been trapped and the downpour started.  Employees came running from all directions and started trying to save the clothing racks and were putting large trashcans under the waterfall.  I couldn’t see how that was going to help for long considering one of those giant cans (the kind you put your trash out on the street in) was already halfway full of water before 5 minutes had passed.

My boys thought the whole thing was cool and asked if they could go watch.  I let them as long as they stayed way back and out of the way of the mad rush to move every rack from the men’s section into aisles all over the store.  I don’t know what those poor Belk employees walked into this morning considering it rained all night long.  But I’m thinking I should go look for some discounts on water-soaked men’s clothes.

It finally let up enough for us to leave and drive home so off we went with our new shoes and shirts.

I really should have known it was going to rain that day because I decided for the first time all summer to blow dry and style my hair.  Isn’t that basically the same as doing an Indian dance around a fire sending smoke signals?

I styled my hair because I got it cut last week and I have to tell you, it was a relief.  For some unknown reason the gal I have gone to for years messed up my hair terribly on my last visit and I had been contemplating finding someone else.  I put it off until my hair looked so bad I had to either get it cut or start wearing hats.

I finally decided to go back and have a serious talk with her about the hack job she gave me last time.  I told her all about the mess and she was very apologetic and we made a plan to grow out the bad cut and she did some transitional things for now.  So my hair is happier, but I will be really glad when it’s all grown out and I can move on to other problems.  Like finding an eyeliner that doesn’t smudge.

I also had her color it.  I have been doing it myself for about a year and I like the results, but I wanted to have her do an ombre thing at the bottom so I went ahead and had her cover the gray roots while she was at it.  It looks really pretty, not too old, not too young.  It’s the Baby Bear of hair color.

But I think I will be letting it dry naturally for a while instead of styling it.  It’s supposed to be raining here all week and also in Virginia, where I will be all weekend.  If you see me there, expect curls.  Or curls may be an exaggeration.  Expect frizzy waves.

Have a great week!