September Simple Pleasures #14

#14. Thunderstorms

Ahhh, monsoon season. It's one of my favorite times of year! Although the past 5 or so years mother nature has been pretty lame. All the storms seem to avoid my area of town no matter what we do to lure them over.

We've tried everything. Rain dances, reverse psychology, just plain ignoring them, PLEADING with the storm to rain on us just a little. But no, the big fluffy thunderheads turn up their noses at us and go pleasure some other part of town with their company.

Rude.

I just love watching the fluffy clouds move across the sky and gather together in one big dark mass. I love the flashes of lightning and the big booms of thunder. I love the dust storms that roll through the valley. I love the rain that floods the streets in a half a second because this is Arizona, who needs storm drains??

One of the most memorable storms (and the most talked about among my family) was at least 8 or 9 years ago. It was a Sunday afternoon just before dinner time. I had woken up from my typical long Sunday afternoon nap and discovered very dark clouds to the north east of us. After dinner we were pleased to see the clouds getting closer, the wind was starting to pick up and there was a lot of thunder and lightning. My sisters and I were so excited that we decided to go for a walk to enjoy the storm

We're geniuses, I tell you!

You can probably see where this is going. So we get halfway down the street and it starts to rain, no problem, we WANTED to get soaked. We walk past our neighbor/good friend's house and she's yelling at us from her porch "You girls are crazy!! Get in here right now!" We just laughed and waved and said "We're fine!"

We walked a few minutes more and then the rain started coming down in sheets, then it started to hail. We ran back to our neighbor's house. She let us in and gave us towels to dry off, all the while laughing at us and saying "I told you so!"

After visiting for a while she drove us home, 4 houses down. It was still raining but the storm had pretty much passed us by.

Here in the desert, rain is so scarce that people do weird things when a storm is coming. Like go for walks. Or play outside in it. In the ONE good summer storm we got last year that's what Hayden and I did. We danced in it. Here are some pictures: