Good morning, Netizens...

 

In case you slept completely through it, last night we had one of Spokane's occasional thunderstorms, complete with sporadic heavy rains and hail. Having lived in the Midwest and portions of the Deep South, I suppose last night's thunderstorms weren't really all that severe, as we had time between the individual peals of thunder to speculate how long we would wait until the next barrage of light and sound. Having endured several truly severe thunderstorms, I know that a good old-fashioned Midwestern severe thunderstorm would never give us the time to contemplate before the next lightning strike, not to mention the occasional tornado dropping from the sky. Both happen more frequently in the Midwest and Deep South than we ever see here in the Inland Northwest, but last night's storm rattled the window casements fairly well and made us worry about our electronics, for lightning storms and electronics do not always mix as well as coffee and milk.

 

This morning's weather, however, is still muggy, unsettling perhaps, almost uncomfortable enough to turn on the air conditioning, which suggests that we might have more crash-and-bang shows from Mother Nature before today is complete.

 

However, at shortly after 4:00 AM this morning, all of Mother Nature, including a particularly vocal robin and a woodpecker, are doing their best to welcome the new day regardless of what may come next. Upon rising, when I peered at the NEXRAD weather radar this morning, I witnessed the Eastern edge of last night's storm sidling off to the East, perhaps to terrorize Montana later on today.

 

In the interim, here I sit at age 65 observing the vagaries of nature, rapt in all its majesty and mystery and thankful that I lost nothing more than a few hours of sleep last night. As I am often fond of saying, it's another wonderful day in Paradise.

 

Dave

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