A Change in the Weather

Clouds promise the coming monsoon - maybe

It rained this evening. There was even a little thunder and lightning. This news will not impress anyone who doesn't live in a desert, especially in light of the recent flooding in the Midwest. But I think it's the first time it's rained here in a month or two. This is the time of year when we start watching for a change in the weather, the specific patterns of pressure and dew point that herald the Arizona monsoon. I think we're a little early yet, but this could well be the leading edge of our rainy season. There have been several wildfires in the area over the last few days, two of them caused by lightning over the mountains. This morning we could smell smoke in the air, blowing in from the fire in the Rincons. By tonight that fire seemed to be out, or close to it.

The dark is light.

I came outside after work to photograph the clouds and the dogs, but the clouds weren't very interesting, and the dogs weren't very interested. The photo at the top of this entry has been darkened and saturated, and it's still not very impressive. The one immediately above this paragraph is the exact same shot with the solarization effect applied. I'm not sure what it proves, if anything, but it's much more interesting.

Furry and blurry, the dogs fail to pose for Steven's Furball Friday

It was well after dark when we got our little bit of rain. The dogs weren't terribly impressed. In the past, Tuffy has often indicated a desire to go to the other outdoors, where it wasn't raining. But tonight's rain wasn't very heavy. The dogs followed me out, felt the rain, went back in, and then came out again briefly when I stayed outside. Really, they were much more interested in the possibility that I might go into the kitchen and get them some leftover chicken.

Tuffy enjoys the cooler temperature - only in the 90s!

John and I should give up trying to judge Tuffy's health from day to day. It's too variable and too subjective. Just yesterday John spoke of half-expecting to find her dead. Today he concluded that she does have an appetite after all, just not for the dog food he just bought by the case at Costco.

Oh, and the doggy door broke last week. I'm sure it wasn't the dogs' fault; it was old and damaged from many years of sun and summer rain and dogs in a hurry. I wonder whether whichever dog was going through the flap at that moment even noticed the falling hunk of plastic. Given that they're both easily spooked by loud noises and sudden movement, it seems likely. Really, despite their very different fur, Tuffy and Pepper are remarkably similar in some ways, particularly in behavior. They both like to hang out and know where their people are, but they're both a bit skittish and neither one is overtly affectionate - no licking, in other words. If anything, Pepper is even less so than Tuffy, despite the fact that she hangs around with me all evening, in case I should have a sudden desire to scratch her or feed her chicken.

Oh, and about last night: as soon as I went to bed, I realized there was a continuity glitch in the scene I'd been editing. So I had to get up and fix it. Told ya! But I finished editing that chapter today. All in all I cut a page and over 350 words from that particular chapter. That doesn't sound like much in a manuscript this long, but I'm pleased anyway.

Karen