Friday, August 21, 2009

A Friday Night Quickie

Here's a quickie for you. I had planned to write about our medical day in Tucson, which had its ups and downs.

But here we are, sitting in our trailer (which we have decided to call Koko House for reasons which may someday be explained), listening to the constant sound of thunder, watching the regular flashes of lightning, and enjoying the torrential rainfall! Yes, the Monsoon Season has come back in full force!

Our desert relies on the Monsoon rains. This year's Monsoon was expected to be hotter and wetter than normal. Hotter it has been, with Benson temperatures regularly above 100 degrees. Wetter? Nope. In Tucson, our closest metro area with TV reporters, it has been 28 days since they saw over a half inch of rain. Today all is forgiven! Rain, in a fast moving storm, was falling at the rate of an inch per hour. We were in Tucson as the storm passed over, moving west at about 25 miles per hour. Fortunately for us, we had pulled under a shelter and were enjoying a delightful lemony icy cold frosty beverage! By the time we were ready to travel again, the storm had moved past.

The storm moved west, we drove east back home to Benson, where every indication was that there had been a great afternoon rainfall. We came inside, unloaded everything from the car, and sat down to what we call our "amber liquid," a bit of Canadian Whiskey with water, over ice. The rain came back, and we were drawn out to the porch (that part of the front steps where we just finished putting cement blocks last week), with our amber liquid in hand, standing there grinning like Cheshire Cats. Our rain is here, it's going to return mightily over the weekend, and our desert will bloom!

And bloom it will. The saguaro cactus, which isn't native to this part of Arizona, will put up its flowers. The barrel cactus, which is native, will bloom in a variety of colors. All the others will put on a display -- that most of our neighbors will never see because they are out somewhere in the north, the west, the east, hopefully not in the hot middle west. They'll come back and we'll tell them, tell them about our beautiful late summer desert.

How about a round of applause for ... Our Life on Wheels!

7 comments:

  1. Glad that your getting the rain that you need... Monsoon rains though... they sound scary. I bet it will be pretty when all the flowers start to bloom... Have Fun!

    (((HUGS)))
    Donna

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like a good day all around! In all the curling rinks up here in Canada your Amber Liquid drink is called a "rye press". The water supposedly keeps you from getting hung over the next day... LOL, never worked for me though...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great blog, Jerry! A real nice story and very well written. I'm a bit jealous of your monsoon rains though. I would love to see our Pacific Northwest rains return with a vengeance as we've been in a drought here since April. But, the November rains will come, like your monsoons, they always do.

    ReplyDelete
  4. There you are waiting for the monsoon rains and here we are with a near record setting "wet" summer. This is the stuff of "weather averages". Our first winter trip west, in 2005, the desert was in full bloom - as that was a very wet winter! It is indeed a wonderful sight to look out across miles and miles of desert color!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Soundslike the 2 of you know what you
    are doing and how to enjoy the great
    things in life. My husband & I want
    to rent an rv next year and travel
    some along the eastern coast, up
    along New England states and Nova
    Scotia. I am looking for advice on
    what to do, 1, 2 3 etc. Any
    suggestions. Thanks Karensue

    ReplyDelete
  6. Karensue - if you read this reply -- first thing you do is join the Escapees club -- www.escapees.com -- for all the information they offer. Then, rent an RV for a week and take a short trip to see if you like it at all before taking a long trip. And remember, whatever you do and wherever you go, it's all part of the adventure!

    ReplyDelete
  7. A BIG round of APPLAUSE of shall have from Ms pat and I.

    I kept waiting for the disaster to happen, but it didn't and all is well in Bensonville!!!

    Great lead,,,,,,and a sip of the Amber Liquid to you both!!!

    Isn't life GREAT!!

    ReplyDelete

Here's your chance to tell us what you think!