awakened early – 2:00 am-ish to the sound of rain and wind tapping the window & pushing on the walls. Went to the front porch area and stepped to this:

we live on bashaw clay soil here – expansive clay – which has a whole host of issues for a cement slab house such as ours. the big oak tree out front still stands, even as the ground becomes saturated by these rains and the water runs off towards amazon creek. when it rains and blows I wonder if it’ll come down but so far, nope. and whew.