August 28th, 2018

 Here you go, an example of a perfectly ordinary August afternoon in Florida.  This is a photo from yesterday afternoon around 4 ish.  That's the witching hour for Florida August afternoon storms.

It's not that the gutter are blocked. No indeed.  They are just as clean and clear as can be.  But the rain was coming down so hard that it was more than the poor gutter could bear.  Which is kind of a theme.  It's also more than the ground can absorb so the back yard appears to be underwater and there are rivers on both sides of the house.  It's interesting to watch.  And I confess, the first few times it happened, it was a little scary too.  Now however, with two previous Florida August under our belts, I'm not sure Tim even noticed that it was raining at all.

I did.

The thunder and lightening was a giveaway even if I hadn't noticed the sound of the rain hammering at the roof.  The boomers didn't just sound as if they were directly above the house!  They sounded like they were in the living room!  Crash, Bang, Boom, Crack! Full orchestration!  If we had owned a dog I'm sure it would have been hiding under the bed at that point.

I went from window to window to window like a little kid, observing the rain coming down and the 'rivers' of water coming up and the rain pouring from the eves looking for all the world like icicles.

It had been a gorgeous day.  There was even a tiny bit of a breeze when we took our noon walk which was very much appreciated.  A few big puffy white clouds played peek-a-book with the sun and boy oh boy was it hot.  The sort of hot and humid we fully expect in summer in Florida of course. But it was such a perfect looking summer day that if you didn't know that it was going to rain in the afternoon, you never would have guessed. 

Until it started getting dark. And then darker. And then darker still.  And then the wind begins to pick up and I rush out to take the umbrella down.  And then there is the distant sound of thunder slowly getting closer and closer. Then the rain starts.  First gentle little pittypats of rain that grow bigger and stronger and then, it's like the clouds broke open and the rain poured out.

Of course it didn't last all that long, the torrents of rain I mean.  The regular ordinary rain went on for several hours. But the exciting part only lasted about a half hour.  Still it was kind of wild watching that tiny pond of accumulated rain in the backyard become a lake.....

Until I could see no grass in the backyard at all and the trees looked like islands poking up from a lake.

I'd like to point out that the inside of the house was perfectly dry. 

I wisely moved the grill to under the overhang and it stayed dry too.  The grills stayed dry.  I however did not because while there is room for the grill under that overhang, it is not yet big enough to accomodate one normal sized griller person.  So I grilled steaks in the rain wearing my rain gear, hood up!  And the steaks came out beautifully.  I am dripdry so it's all good.

And once the storm was over, the rivers on the side of the house went away, the lake in the back of the house disappeared, the temperature dropped significantly and everything looked fresh and new and smelled great. 

It's another stunningly beautiful morning here.  I walked to Pilates class and back wearing sunglasses and was the sky is the most beautiful shade of blue.

And I am not at all surprised to see that the afternoon forecast calls for rain again right around 4 o'clock.  Of course it does.  This is August in Florida.