cactuswatcher | News from the desert

It's officially summer. We've had temperatures above 110 F, and last night we had our first rain since mid April, a rousing thunderstorm in the middle of the night. It's all perfectly normal. It's monsoon season, hotter than blazes and welcome thunderstorms that come in from all points of the compass.

I got up and checked the radar loop on the net last night after the lightning passed. The storm was a fairly typical first monsoon storm coming from the southeast headed toward the northwest. The whole system is actually a huge patch of clear weather fringed with clouds and storms from here circling up into Utah and all the way to Nebraska (waving to

ann1962). The local storms here are small and the Phoenix area is large. So not everyone 'in town' got rain last night. Hope you got some,

soulfulspike80!

This year we have an extra little problem. A minor disaster at a power station means we'll probably be having short rolling blackouts during peak hours for the rest of the summer. We've been asked to conserve, but asking the average Joe to conserve (translation have his air conditioning set several degrees higher in the hottest part of the day) for months probably isn't realistic. Either the larger businesses will do most of it or the blackouts will certainly come. The power companies are promising they'll be short, but who knows at this point.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Waving back]

The weather here only got hot and humid yesterday. Curly hair. We have been unseasonably warm rather than hot here and have had lots of rain by NE standards. Therefore results in no lawn watering for us at least(the notion of which goes against every environmental and common-sensible vein in me - one shouldn't have to water their lawn). Others around here seem not to have noticed that it has indeed rained so they don't really need to water. But do. We are in a drought situation too.

Glad to here you received some rain. Hoping for some more for you and your garden.

Good lord, man--you do realize you're living in hell, don't you? The very thought has made me faint with horror!

;o) (Suffering at 22C in the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest...)

I wish it would always get down to 22C at night, here. As I've said before, it's hell with air-conditioning, at least when the power is on. ;o)

My boyfriend's from Tucson, and though I've been in New Mexico during monsoon season, I've never been in AZ then. Boyfriend is a good photographer, and takes marvelous photos of the Tucson/monsoon season sunsets, so I've been dying to visit this time of year. Translation: I'm jealous. I love the desert.

I have had relatives in Tucson for decades. It's a little higher and cooler that Phoenix, but not much. The higher mountains there make for the best storm photos. Here I can tell the storms are about to arrive at my house when I can't see the mountains to the south. The monsoon storms are fun and little dangerous; lots of wind, dust and lightning, sometimes big hail, often flash floods, but no tornadoes, thank goodness.

I like the desert, but in summer, especially when it's over 110, it's hard to love it.

The local storms here are small and the Phoenix area is large. So not everyone 'in town' got rain last night. Hope you got some, soulfulspike80!

Oh, yeah - it rained from 11pm-2am last night. Pouring rain. I loved it!

I was in VA and MD for 10 days and just got back Sunday. Had an amazing time - and am now seriously considering moving out there in the next year or two. We were at Mt. Vernon for the 4th and it poured off and on all day. They had to cancel all of the activities planned there for the holiday, which was a bummer. And in DC they cancelled the parade (don't rain on my parade!) - apparently it was the worst weather on the 4th in years there. But I loved the weather and it kind of prepped me for my return home and monsoon season.

So I went back to work Monday and ended up putting in a 12 hour day! Vacation? What vacation? And that morning I get a call from my sister-in-law telling me my brother is on his way to the hospital with possible kidney stones and can she drop off my 8 month old niece at my office. Long story short, it wasn't kidney stones but it was an infection. And my niece didn't stop by (much to the disappointment of my co-workers).

Then Tuesday my mom calls - on her way home from my brother's the night before she ran over a street sign that had torn loose in the high winds (gotta love monsoon season) and blew out her tire. Fortunately, she wasn't in an accident and my brother was able to come out and put on her spare. She found out it was a street sign because a police officer stopped by shortly after it happened and told her what it was. But I can't help wondering why the cop didn't stay and put on the spare tire for her.

Then this morning my mom calls to tell me my grandmother is in the hospital with heart failure. She'd started having problems last week while we were in VA and things had progressively gotten worse. Later today it sounded like she was doing better, but we're in wait and see mode.

So now I've been home all of three days with nary a dull moment. I need a vacation!

It surely shows you're needed when the work piles up when you're gone. Even if it has nothing to do with the folks working around you, a business' customers always seem to need something when key people are gone.

Kidney infection = no fun. My sympathies to your brother.

Obviously, I wish the best for your grandmother. Am I correct, that I think you said you visited her in Vancouver, BC, recently?

Obviously, I wish the best for your grandmother. Am I correct, that I think you said you visited her in Vancouver, BC, recently?

Thanks, CW. Yes, I was there for her birthday the end of March. My mom's flying up there tomorrow for a few days. It sounds like she's doing a little better - she's a tough lady! At this point I just feel fortunate that we've had her with us for the past year or so, since last year we almost lost her when she had pneumonia, CHF, and 3 strokes while she was in the hospital. Since then she's been able to meet her new great-granddaughter and see her great-grandson again. So every day is a blessing.

Just got back from the Dbacks game. Can things get any more depressing? (Don't answer that!) I guess we'll find out in the next few days if they're trading RJ and/or Finley. I will be extremely bummed if they trade either one.

News from the desert

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110??!!

Re: 110??!!

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Raindrops keep falling on my head

Re: Vacation

Re: Vacation