ahhh....rainshowers!

We had a really strange storm today. As I was on the phone with a friend of mine that lives about 13 miles by highway, she was describing the storm that was hitting. I could HEAR how loud it was! I looked out from the back deck and saw this:

Lo and behold, the storm hit us about 10 minutes later. Nasty wind, heavy rain, HAIL, and the strangest rolling thunder. You could see bright spots in the clouds, but no actual lighting bolts; the cloud to cloud thunder sounded almost like an airplane passing overhead, but it was consistent for at least 15 minutes! When the hail started, Maisie (who was not yet completely asleep) jolted awake and was scared of the thundering sounds the hail was making all over the windows and the cement tile roof.

As a kid, I LOVED sitting out in the storms (out on the back porch) and watching the water and hearing the sounds. So Maisie and I opened the front door and sat at the threshhold to enjoy the storm. We have a porch, so we didn't get wet, but we were rather cold.

As we were sitting there, a small orange cone (used by the neighbor's up the next cul-de-sac to slow down cars) came floating down the gutter and settled across the street in the drain. Maisie thought this was the funniest thing she'd ever seen and called Nana and Papa (who are waiting at an airport in Phoenix to come home) to tell them about it. [I wish I hadn't run out of memory card and got a picture]

We also saw an empty bottled water container float down the gutter. Of course that led to another discussion about littering :)