A REAL THUNDERSTORM!

For those of you familiar with Austin, Texas weather, you know it has been VERY hot and VERY dry and VERY much in drought condition for a VERY long time. (We are more than 13 inches behind in annual rainfall for 2008.) The few (and far between) rains we have had have been pitiful, at best, without any real fanfare.

Needless to say, I had forgotten how much "fun" (and I use that term loosely!) a real thunderstorm could be during its onslaught. My reminder came late last night.

As I crawled between the sheets, having spent a busy day doing fabulously interesting things (if yet another Wal-Mart run qualifies as such), I heard the pitter-patter of gentle raindrops on the roof. Shortly after settling in, I witnessed a rather significant FLASH of lightning, followed immediately by a horrendous CLAP of thunder! Upon confirming we still had electricity (light on!) and that I still had my heart in my chest (it had been in my throat briefly!), I slipped a bit further into the sheets and fortified myself for what I expected to come. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the following lightning flashes were followed by MUCH farther off thunder which actually rolled... really rolled... for long periods of time. It was almost a pleasant sound. We received a nice drenching rain with the "fireworks" off in the distance to the north. It was actually very lovely and the gentle rain had returned as I drifted off to sleep.

When I headed out on my morning walk at 7:00 a.m. today, the clouds remained but the precipitation had ended. The only clue about how much rain had actually fallen was that the pine straw and pine cones that are usually in the curbs along the street were now out of the curbed area and into the street several inches. To those who are not initiates of Louisiana rainfall and curbs, this happens when the rainfall is sufficient to create little rivers in the curbs. The pine straw and pine cones are heavy and will actually "float" out into the street as far as the water pushes out into the street. When the little rivers subside, the pine debris remains at where the edge of the water had been. No rain gauges required here!!! Just count the inches from the curb to the pine debris!! :)

Okay... it's not really QUITE like that... but there is some validity to what I have told you.

Until the next fascinating ramble...