Grab a chair and a couple of root beers...

Last year at this time, it was very very hot, and very very dry. The temperatures were in the triple digits, our garden was slowly burning up, and the crops in the fields around town were drying up. The ground was so dry, it was driving the temperatures up, and we were in the epicenter of a catastrophic two year drought.

Today, it is pouring down rain. We have a 70 % chance of rain and thunderstorms, and have already had over three inches of rain. Though the Lower Colorado River Authority warns that we could be back in a mild drought by the middle of summer, right now, things are looking pretty good and very green!

What sort of changes has drought brought into our lives?

My kids have learned not to complain about rainy days. Rainy days are to be celebrated and enjoyed to the fullest! This includes rain dancing, breathless games of soccer or frisbee, running around in the rain and laughing, and then flopping down on the ground panting just to enjoy the feeling of rain pattering on our skin.

We're not doing that today, though, thanks to the thunder and lightning!

It's 8:50 a.m. here, but it's so dark, you'd think it was 5! Part of me wants to go back to bed, but my brain is in "awake" mode, so... *shrugs* So, instead, I went outside and laid out my rain necklace to charge. It was way overdue, poor thing, because instead of being cool and soothing to the touch, it was dry and almost hot! This is the first good thunderstorm we've had in ages, so I'll leave it out for a few hours and let it go. It was made by a dear friend many years ago, and I have kept it carefully in its little bag, only taking it out on special occasions. I like to look at the bag from time to time, because she put so much work into it and it's truly beautiful. Perhaps I'll take pictures of them later to show y'all.

As you can probably tell, I'm in one of my moods. Probably because I was a bit "writing deprived" yesterday. The Husbandly One killed the computer's mouse night before last out of frustration, because the thing was seriously on the fritz. It was a wired mouse, and the wiring had frayed where it connects to the mouse, and this made the use of it erratic at best. With no mouse, the Mac was useless, and though I have a laptop, I don't do any writing on it that I can't save to a USB drive (which are all full) because we take the laptop with us when we go on trips.

The kids kept me busy and distracted, but... oh, how I wanted to write!!

We now have a Magic Mouse, which happies me greatly! No more wire, no more struggling to keep the wire from getting caught in the tray or the keyboard shelf, or away from the cats, or the kids... I love my Magic Mouse!! Hee!!

That's all for now. I mean, it's been a busy few days, but for now, I want to sit back and contemplate the things I'm working on, and see about writing something I can post maybe later in the week. I also owe someone a drabble.

*picks up Coke and leans back to look out the window at the rain while pondering stories*

1.45 inches of rain so far since 11. a.m.!!! YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

*runs out to dance in the rain*

It's raining, it's pouring,
The old bear is snoring,
He rubbed his shoulder on a great big boulder,
And wouldn't get up in the morning!!!


It's raining!! It's raining!!!

*is very excited and happy*

When I went to bed last night, the rain gauge at the elementary school down the street said .06 inches of rain (it's a WeatherBug station). When I got up this morning, it said .69 inches of rain. And just now, when I checked it, it said 1.26!!!

*does a happy dance*

I've filled three recycled cat litter containers with rainwater, and my buckets are filling again. Those are for the kalanchoes, aloe, alyssum, star cactus, portulacas, bougainvillea, cyclamens, and antique rose I have on the back porch. I'm wishing I had the energy yesterday to turn two more beds for our vegetable garden. We've done three so far, having to do it by hand since we don't have a tiller. Oh well, it's good exercise, and I'm good with a hoe! Mind you, I'm not complaining about the ground being wet, because I'm telling you, there was no ground moisture at all when I was turning the soil! It was dry, dry, dry, even ten inches down!! I've even had to water our compost pile at least once a week, because it was DRY!!

I know this is just a proverbial drop in the bucket, rain-wise. It won't break the drought. But it's so nice to see everything wet, really wet, and to go outside to feel the rain, even if it is only 40 degrees outside, and not expected to get any warmer until Saturday. I can live with that! I got my thermals (yes, Chan, I finally found my CuddlDuds! And y'all, Chan is laughing her ass off right now, because she can probably hear me saying "cuddle-duds" in my Texas drawl), I got my thick wool socks, I got something to wrap around my neck... I'm good!

It's sad, though, that this rain won't be enough to fire up the bluebonnets in all their glory. It didn't get cold enough to crack the seeds (we need sustained periods of below freezing weather to do that), and we didn't get any rain in the last two or three months, which all adds up to little or no bluebonnets. Oh, well... there's always next year. Maybe we'll trek out to the Wildflower Research Center this spring and take pictures. It's not the same, though, as seeing waves and waves of hills covered in blue and white, with spots of red from the Indian Paintbrush, and the big red/gold faces of Gallardia spotted here and there among them. And the smell! One bluebonnet alone has little to no fragrance, but a whole field of them! It's such a light fragrance, but it's sweet and fresh, and cool. I'm going to miss that this year.

Now I need to sit down and plot out my herb garden, decide what I'm going to grow. Oregano, basil, peppermint and spearmint... rosemary... dill... parsley... balm? Comfrey? Hmmmm... guess I'd better get out my sketchbook and start planning...

*rubs hands together with glee*

I can't wait!!

Uh-oh... it's POURING down rain.  It's been raining bucketloads all day, which, is nice on the one hand, because of the drought we had the last four or five years, but... it also sucks, because the kids are all jazzed about the Potter Party in San Marcos and... it looks like we're not going.

Lest you think we are scared of water, might I mention, we are SATURATED.  So, we're under a flash flood warning.  Meaning, flooding is imminent.  The ground is so soaking full of water that it just can't absorb any more.  The weather report says we could get another potential five to ten inches in the next twelve hours.  Yay.  There is a river between us and San Marcos.  The Blanco River.  This river likes to flood, and sweep people down off bridges and drown them.

I love Harry Potter, and I would love to get my hands on a an extra copy, most especially of the British version... but not enough to risk crossing the Blanco River at night.  No thank you.    The kids, and the Husbandly One matter much more to me than the book.  

It's dark, it's raining heavily, and I'm going to have to wrestle the Impertinent Daughter for the copy of Deathly Hallows that is arriving first thing in the morning.  Hmmm.... maybe if I sleep on the doorstep....