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Back home on the Piedmont, a slow Wednesday morning gives over to high haze, high clouds tracking through, and what I'd say was the surefire promise of storms later on if not for all the fancier folks saying our chances were slimmer than that. I'm returned from a two-day to St. Louis, to Webster Groves, to be more exact, city and town of tulips everywhere, everywhere. And tornadoes: Last year, flying out of Nashville in mid-April, a flight crew told us boarding passengers to hustle lest we not get out in front of the storm, lest we have to deplane and take shelter back in the terminal. Same same yesterday evening at Lambert Field, as we got out just in front of egg-sized hail, tornadoes, lightning, etc. Had not what happened in Raleigh happened last week, I'd say that it was good to live on this side of the mountains. But maybe April will seek you out wherever you are.

A draft—new and improved—to 10003. Less panic in this round. Maybe I'm not done, but I'm closer. Now the waiting. In the interim: Siding the last side of the shed addition, calling the city to come and say Yep, it's sided. Then the ceremonial burning of the building permit. Then the whatever else attends to such things. Then the casting around and looking for new projects, for next projects. Window trim in the building proper. Prime and paint the building proper. Think about a floor to go with all that subfloor. Maybe something simple, like planting impatiens, planting glads. It is that time.

The Toad naps. The clouds build in. It feels more than anything like summer out there, like something hung out to dry. I cut the back yard before I left. Never did get to the front. That'll be an adventure. Maybe I can just let it go another week and then hay it. Maybe I should procure a goat. So the fancies say our rain and storm chances are slim. I say: Maybe so, but don't put it entirely out of your mind. This hot, this humid—if it was August, I'd say no way, that we were headed for heartbreak, that the cracked ground would only crack more. But it's April. April has thus gone big.