I grew up in Tornado Alley. Thunderstorms were a regular, and beloved on my part, occurance throughout the year. I thrilled to being awoken by a clap of thunder and flash of lightning. My childhood home had a tin roof that gave the drops a special 'ping'. Every April & October the weather geared up for the really SEVERE stuff of tornadoes in May & November. I loved the greenishness of the air that indicated a tornado was on it's way.
The closest a tornado got to my family was one that touched down 1/2 a mile to the west of our house, picked back up & went over us, then touched down 1/2 a mile to the east of us. It was pretty exciting. Then there was the year at our church Girl's Camp when there were 100ish teen girls and 30ish leaders crammed into the cinderblock restroom structure on the shores of Eufaula Lake during a tornado warning. Stuff like that makes the adrenaline tingle in my fingertips. Love it!
Now, here in Arizona, it has rained once since March. I've been anticipating monsoon season for a few weeks, and Friday the sky looked a little promising for precipitation. I pointed out the lines of rain pouring down in the easternmost part of the valley to the kids as we were driving in the afternoon, but I was resigned to the fact that it was past us and moving further away, so we wouldn't be seeing any of that particular storm up close & personal.
Saturday was sunny & hot, but apparently we got a short shower in the middle of the night, as evidenced by the dusty circles on my windshields that evoked images of Lichtenstein's pop art in my mind. So - sunny, hot and more humid than usual, but no raindrops falling on my head. :/
Part of the package deal here in this Valley of the Sun is that when it does rain, the little pebbles on the side of the road get IN the road, and make for more windshield-chipping/cracking opportunities if one follows the car in front of one too closely, say, within about a quarter-mile on the freeway (which 'one' learned last October. Twice.). So I was a little aghast when I heard two or three little dings on my car roof while driving Saturday night well after dark. "How in the WORLD are pebbles hitting the top of my car?!" was my first thought. And then I saw a few drops hit my windshield, smearing the lingering dots of dirt like a tear down the tortured blonde's cheek (because my wiper fluid has evaporated in the past 3 weeks of 110+ heat).
It only sprinkled for about 7 minutes, but my little desert-aclimated heart beat a little faster & I think I
almost got a teensy adrenaline high.
Bring on the monsoons, Arizona sky!
