Friday, July 11, 2008

Monsoon Moments...

Rain, rain go away.
Come again another day.
My girl wants to play.

The summer rains are upon us. My three year old has been incessantly singing this song all week long. Thunder and lightning, cooling rain and the smell of Creosote trees in the air, all really lovely. 

I remember the first summer we lived in the house, the kids had never seen lightning before, or heard the sound of loud thunder. During a particularly booming storm, I opened the blinds wide and we all climbed into our King size bed, hiding under the covers and watching Nature's show.  The lightning was particularly glorious and gave us all a perspective on the power of an electrical storm. During a monsoon rain, we can get a different view of lightning from different parts of the house. We all run around shouting, "Look at the lightning through the office window." or "In here. Come to the breakfast room, the lightning's amazing."  It's a 360 degree performance! 

Now, my kids are old pros.  When a storm starts, I hear Storytellin' Boy running outside and yelling, "Shelter. Shelter. I need shelter." But really, the kids love to be out in the rain, it seems to energize them.  Sometimes it rains so hard that it rocks the house.

All the roads around us have dips and certain areas become flooded. A few times we have been stranded and had to wait near a wash. We sit in the car and watch the water rise. We have a "stupid motorist Law" and if you drive into a part of the road that is flooding and your car starts to float away, or fill with water, you are responsible for the cost of rescue.  I thought this was so funny when we first lived here, but every year there are local rescues on the news of cars that tried to go through deep water. 

Here's a video of how quickly the water rises:


Of course, the roads near our home are back roads and do not have the bridges to protect motorists from the rising water!!

Unlike the little song my daughter sings, I wish for the rain and lightning to stay for a few more days...

More Haiku Friday poems here and here!

5 comments:

Karen Coutu said...

Oh my! That water does rise fast. I'm glad your children are pros about storms now.

Elle said...

great post - a nice little view into weather patterns in a different part of the country

Joyce said...

This brings back great memories of lightning and rain in Arizona.

I remember people taking boats down our road after a heavy rain, just for fun.

And that rain fragrance - there's just nothing like it. :)

Anonymous said...

I do love and miss storms (none where we are) but not flooding. Nicely haiku'd!

Karen Coutu said...

Come visit me! :)

http://3garnetsn2sapphires.blogspot.com/2008/07/photohunt-support-and-some-blog-awards.html