Wicked Weather

Here in Arizona we expect our weather to be the same....hot and dry. The monsoon season will bring an afternoon storm every now and again. But, for the most part it's 100+ degrees and dry. The winter will be bright sunny days with highs around 60-70. A great change and refreshing weather.

This winter has thrown just about everybody for a loop. It's been cold, cloudy, and very stormy. We have had days and weeks of rain, wind, cold, cloudy days. The other night as I was coming home from school and it was raining pretty hard. Streets were flooded, and it was coming down "like cats and dogs". Because this weather is so different for us, the kiddos have woken up each morning to see if it's raining. They have been pleasantly surprised to see that it is raining. Although, come afternoon time when they are tired of being cooped up all day due to said weather, they wish it would stop so they could go play.

I pulled into our subdivision and noticed there was a tree down across the road. As I drove up on the curb to move around the tree, there were several more down. I couldn't believe how destructive the wind had been while I was in class. Needless to say, our subdivision got hit really hard with downed trees throughout. Many people lost great big trees in their yards. Some, like us, just had big branches ripped from the tree. Fortunately other than the trees being damaged, there wasn't much other property damage.

When I pulled into our garage, Adam had come out to see what was going on. I grabbed the umbrella and we took a walk to survey the damage. I new then that I was going to grab my camera in the morning and take some pictures because people wouldn't believe me. So, without further ado, here's the proof of the damage of which I speak:


Yes, that is the mailbox under the tree in the picture.




We got so much rain that the greenbelt areas throughout our subdivision became makeshift ponds for ducks to swim in. (If you can't see the ducks, click on the picture to enlarge it, they're there.)



We have been blessed with this much needed rain. I am hoping it is an indication of a much cooler summer (meaning 105-110, instead of 115-120 - trust me there's a difference!) and maybe even a great wet monsoon season. Until then, I'll take this weather, love it, embrace it, cook for it, and even dance a little in it.