Well, Hellooooo, Dolly!

Taking a page out of Corbie's playbook, I got so excited over actually receiving rain from the remnants of Hurricane Dolly that I took some pictures on my cell phone while driving. Lest I be lectured by family, all I did was hold the phone up on the steering wheel and hope for the best, but it gives an idea.

We have been fortunate enough to see a trace of rain a couple of times over the past couple of weeks, just enough to settle dust, but nothing substantial in.....oh, my, I don't know! I had been at the school this afternoon registering for a few classes. When we entered the campus at around 3pm, the sky was blue. When we left an hour later the horizon was a wonderful black. I liked what I saw, but I know better than to get my hopes up living here.

Leaving campus I knew we needed to stop for some pull-ups, so I planned to swing by Walmart near my house. The clouds were getting darker, it was obviously raining over the ponies, and the lightning was brilliant.



"Luke, we're running in, getting what we need, and running out. MAYBE we'll beat this and be able to enjoy it from home."

I should've known better. We weren't halfway down the aisle, and not going slow, when you could barely hear anything other than the rain beating on the roof. People actually stopped and stared at the ceiling! We were officially stranded. Not that I totally minded, I knew this rain was also hitting at my house.

It took about 45 minutes, but we were finally able to dash to the 4Runner. It was still raining pretty hard, but less than it had been. I kind of tossed Luke into the back seat, threw the pull-ups in the back, ran the cart to the corral (something I've never before done without my child, but it was special circumstances and I was literally running), strapped Luke into his seat, and hopped into my seat. I was soaked, and giggly. Luke thought I was crazy.

I was able to snap a few more pictures on the way home. I know this is silly, but we haven't seen this in a long time. The rain gauge said .75" Hard to believe that was it! I am one of those dorks who has to cross-check everything when it comes to weather. The "official" station for my area said closer to 3-hundredths of an inch, but I'm guessing the power went out there because that was clearly wrong. When the arroyos and low-water crossings are completely full, you know it's at least a half-inch. Anyway, for the very first time ever, I wrote a quick email to the news station who supports our weather station near the house. I told them what it read, where I was located, and what the gauge in our yard said. They chose to use my report for the 10pm newscast. I feel special (feel free to puke over that).




The lightning was spectacular! I know I've mentioned that, but it also deserves another mention because it started a grassland fire near the house. It apparently burned about 35 acres, but the rain prevented it from being bigger. The good news is that it happened on a cattle ranch that is about 8,000 acres in size, so no homes were threatened, and it was pretty much out by the time crews arrived. They stayed on scene, however, to be sure it didn't flare back up. Rain and fire at the same time. Never a dull moment!

Tonight we're enjoying the sweet smell of the life-giving gift we were given. Tomorrow starts another long stretch of hot and dry. I just have to thank "Dolly" for coming ashore in a spot that allowed her to get caught up in the monsoon flow, as well as holding on to enough moisture to let us have a bit. Besides, it was nice to see the tropical storm clouds again. It's been a while, and I always marvel at how different they look from the normal storm clouds....