Summer Storms

Wow, what a great monsoon we've had! After the terrible drought we've had for the past 7 years, it's a bit of a shock to have cloudy days for weeks, and rain nearly every day. I know most of the US has hot, muggy summers, but we're just used to dry heat, up to 115 during the worst days. We've had clouds every day, and rain almost every day, since July 12. We desert rats hardly know what to do! I don't have a mud room, there's rarely a need. The dogs are tracking mud in, so I put rugs and mud mats in front of the doors to save the floors a bit. Since I'm not allowed to sweep or mop, something has to help me out!

The clouds have been building all day, and now it's raining hard. The thunder and lightening is very close, crackling and loud. Our poor dogs are cowering, either on our laps or under our chairs, they hate the thunder. The best thing about cloudy days in Arizona are the sunsets... as the sun drops below the Mountains, the clouds cast out the most amazing colors of orange, pink, gray and hues in between, all radiating across the sky. The sunset in the west will be orange and dark pinks, but when we look toward the east, the clouds will be radiating the most amazing color of pink- 40 miles worth across the sky it seems. Where the clouds are too dark to let the colors glow, there will be sunstreaks through the lighter spots, looking for all the world like a spolight blazing onto the ground below.

With the rain comes the weeds. It's too wet most days to mow, although David was able to push through the worst of the backyard weeds before it rained again yesterday. Now it looks more like lawn in the back instead of weeds. Thank goodness for the rain, with it raining daily, I didn't worry about my pots and vegetable garden as much. I've been in bed or in my recliner more than any place else, and I can't do anything that causes exertion. Yeah, that's the bad news, the echocardiogram done on Thurday showed more fluid around my heart, and also my lungs. At least that explains why I've been so tired and easily winded, but it sure wasn't what I was expecting to hear. Now there will be more tests, lab work, blah blah blah. I love the fact that I have a good excuse to have a messy house and yard, though. Can't blame it on laziness any more, get to use the old ticker as a reason!