A severe thunderstorm warning

was not forecast for the early hours of yesterday morning but I was woken at just before 3am by the sound of thunder in the distance. The next I knew the entire sky was lit up by flashes of lightning. 

Eventually we had more than 65,000 lightning strikes and 26mm of rain in just over an hour. Dramatic? Yes. Dangerous? Yes.

We are on the same section of the grid as a local hospital so I knew that, if there was a power outage, it could be serious and the emergency crews could be out there in that weather - risking their lives. Fortunately, we did not lose power. 

But there was something else that concerned me and that was the "rough sleepers". I know there are homeless people who are actually afraid to sleep in any sort of building but this does not mean they should be out in the complete open in that sort of weather. There I was safely in bed and I thought of two rough sleepers I know who frequent this area. I know where they sometimes illegally sleep. They know me. One of them never speaks at all but, on a good day, he will raise a hand in a sort of greeting and I am always careful to respond. The other one will sign "Hi Cat." He isn't deaf but I think his friend might be.

My friend W... was coming to lunch so I did not have a lot of time to go looking for them but I needed to pick up a book from the library as well so I decided to do a check of the most obvious places on the way. They would probably have been made to move on from the local railway station but I did a quick tour of both the up and down platforms and then the adjacent garden - and there they were. They were sitting on a damp log with takeaway coffee in their hands. Their belongings were in their neat daytime rolls. The rolls might be filthy dirty but they do roll them so neatly.

"You guys okay after last night?" I asked. They nodded. I didn't ask them where they had been. I would not have got an answer. I don't know who bought them the coffee, possibly one of the people who tends the little memorial garden. They were unlikely to have bought it for themselves.

And, before anyone asks, these two are not "alcoholics". They have never been seen with alcohol. The local hotels do not know them and the local "beer, wine, spirits" outlet has never come across them. They are possibly former soldiers who simply cannot cope with life. I don't feel at all threatened by them. Sometimes they ride the trains and, if I am there too, they always help me get the tricycle on and off.  They will move on again soon and I might not see them again for months - or they may never come back. We smile at one another and I say "thank you" - and I am grateful for the help.

"Okay - take care. There's more weather coming up." I told them. They nodded again and actually smiled. They had been out all night in the most atrocious weather and they could still smile. I pedalled off feeling guilty because I have so much and, like most people, I grumble and complain at times.