The Weatherman and King Midas

The weatherman had predicted we'd get some rain yesterday, so I went for my (supposed-to-be-daily) walk early and ended it when the man who mows my yard showed up. Between the expectation of rain and my allergy to fresh-cut grass, I was pretty sure I'd spend the whole day indoors for one reason or another.

The rain started mid-morning and didn't let up. I kept waiting for a slack period so Levi and Gimpy could go outside, but there was no slack period. By one o'clock in the afternoon they were practically crossing their legs, so I let them go outside despite the steady rain.

That turned out to have been a good decision. From the time the rain started until it stopped just before sundown, it did nothing but increase in volume. I've lived in this house for fifteen years and don't think I've ever seen more water in the yard. Here's how it looked in the late afternoon:

This is the backyard, viewed from the backdoor.
(Be sure to click on the images to enlarge them.)

This is the view from the carport, looking across the driveway.

The back of my car was about two feet into the carport, so you know

how hard it must have been raining to get that much water on the car.

Television programming was interrupted over and over by flash-flood warnings and film footage of cars stalled in high water on major area roads, and I was glad there was no place I needed to go in that kind of weather. As the day grew later, the storm grew in intensity, with lots of lightning, lots of thunder, and intense happiness on my part that Levi and Gimpy are not plagued by the kind of storm phobia that always terrified Kadi and Butch. (Gimpy did spend part of the storm under my desk, but he was napping, not cowering.)

After hours and hours, the rain stopped abruptly. It didn't slow first, just turned off as suddenly as if a big hand in the sky had reached out and shut off a faucet. And then, about a minute later, an amazingly beautiful light came through my front windows and, like King Midas, turned everything it touched into gold. I stepped outside to see the source of that light, then ran back in the house to get my camera. 

That deluge of rain we had? It was definitely worth it.