INTERESTING TIMES

"You don't have to shovel rain."
--Scott Gerber 

Several incredible shots here.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/8176148/Perfect-storm-amazing-photos-of-supercell-thunderstorms-by-Sean-R-Heavey.html

I have this strange chair that is the corner out of a segmented sofa. It is supposed to be off white, but it is so old and dirty that it is more like gray mottled with brown. Last winter the roof leaked on it and the stains were the worst yet. I generally keep it covered with a blanket. Today I propped it up on the bannister of our tiny 2nd floor porch. I sprayed it with dilute dish soap, scrubbed the spots a little and hosed it off repeatedly. Then it started to rain. I thought "great, it will get rinsed off well". But then the rain set in as if it would never end. The chair might never dry left out on the porch. So I just wrangled the oversized ugly thing back into the foyer and set a fan on it. This chair only came with me to Oregon because my cat loved it. It is the thing that has told her we are "home" in the several moves we have made so far. I think this may be the end of the chair. It is a piece of garbage that I carted here with me from Arizona. I often think back on the stuff I loaded in a truck to bring here. Junk. But this chair has had its moments. It has been a good meditation chair. And it fits well in small nooks beside windows. I think I paid Suzanne (not this Suzanne but the prior one in my life) $10 for it. I can barely believe I paid ten bucks for this. But here it is. Funny how possessions can complicate our lives. I would have done well to get rid of it a long time ago, and the cat would have known some other way that we were home.

I keep thinking I should get rid of 90% of everything that I have.
Then I cram more stuff into the closet that I might use someday.

We three babes of Oregon went. K & S had not met before, but we were a sympatico group. I love to boat with women because it is relatively noncompetitive with laughs to spare. Twas a lovely dripping drizzly day. We chuckled when the rain started. Kayaking is just as fun in the rain as not; one must be prepared for total immersion. We did a four mile class II section from milepost 7 to a semi-developed takeout. The water was medium--you could see where it had been much higher by the strainers. There was a spiral of black PVC hanging from high in a tree that we deduced was from a culvert that had unravelled in a flood.

It's pouring rain now, finally. Rained all day yesterday, and I rode my bike in the rain to and from school. I don't mind it too much, I find the spray on my face refreshing, but I can tell that it affects Suzanne's mood. Shakti the wild kitten doesn't like it much, but sometimes she spends the entire day holed up out there and isn't wet when she finally meows at the door to come in. Vida the pug doesn't like the rain at all. When she goes down the stairs and finds out that it is raining, she tries to run back up the stairs to the apartment. Suzanne has to pick her up and put her in the back yard to get her to eliminate.
( More )

The rain started earlier than usual today. I was out walking in the recently shorn forest, taking picture of the big logging machines. There was one machine picking up the trees, sawing off their remaining limbs, and tossing the tops in one pile and the even-length logs in another. There was another machine with four claws that picked up piles of logs and put them on a semi truck. There were lots of guys in orange standing around beside their trucks. One of them said good morning to me. I was almost surprised that nobody chased me away.
( Long )

The reason why I do not plan to return to the desert southwest: dryness. I miss the rain. This morning's smidgen of snow was not enough to feed the wildflowers. It will be a dusty, fire-fraught summer here in Arizona. I look forward to again being in the land of fog. Even if my boots turn green with mold.
( Where I'm going )

It started last Tuesday (June 27), in my book. That was the first day that it really poured in the afternoon. The official beginning was June 28, because that's when the dew point reached the requisite level. The Monsoon is expected to start around the 4th of July so this counts as early. I really like it. I don't mind getting soaked occasionally riding the bike.
( about the monsoons in Arizona )