Rain and Thunder

We've finally been getting some rain, which is good. However, it's been ruining our plans a lot lately, which is bad. We've missed 2 of the free Saturday night concerts in the park because of the rain. Last week we were all packed up with a picnic dinner and on our way with friends and then the gray clouds rolled in and it started pouring so we turned back. Yesterday, Alisa and I were on our way to an ice cream social/kiddie pool party when it decided to rain. We had gone 1 mile south with sunny skys but then got into the rain. It started raining and raining hard--so hard that I had trouble seeing the road and the light at the intersection I was at went out as I was sitting there. It was strange to me because the light went out and then the traffic going my way started going. I ended up doing a u-turn after the light to go back home and the traffic going north with me was going through the light. I'm not sure if anyone going north to south was ever going to stop and let the east to west cars go. I thought if the light is out you have to treat it like a stop sign.

The sky was sunny with a few puffy clouds over our house and to the north and northwest, but the sky was as dark as it could be to the south and southwest. Since the party was to the south, I decided we should turn back because we were already running late (Alisa took a long afternoon nap) and I didn't want to drive 20 minutes in the hard rain only to get there and discover that the ice cream was all gone and everyone was leaving. I've never seen just a defined difference before between the dark and rainy clouds and the sunny and puffy clouds. It was as if a line was drawn at the east to west road where the light went out. It was really wild because usually when it's raining in town, the rest of the town will at least have grey clouds overhead. All the dark clouds and rain started a mile south of our home. I ended up going north to a baby consignment store to try some sandals on Alisa before going home. The sky remained sunny and it didn't rain a drop there or at our house until maybe 11 PM.

If Alisa gets a worried look on her face after hearing loud thunder, we start quoting the part of the Dr Seuss book "Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You?" that says "Boom, boom, boom! Mr Brown is a wonder. Boom, boom, boom! Mr Brown makes thunder" because it helps her to relax since she always smiles at the part.

The thunder was so frequent and so loud last night around the time I was going to bed that it seemed like it could wake the dead. Our whole house was shaking. Once I was in bed, there was a really really really loud boom right over our house and then it rumbled around to the north and east for about 15 seconds, which is a long time for continuous thunder. I prayed that Alisa wouldn't wake up with all that noise and she didn't. We are due for more rain today (and every day this week), but right now the sun is shining.