So, um, weather.

So in case you missed it, I live on the east coast now. And I used to live in a desert-y area in the west. And believe it or not, the weather is different here than it was there. I know - shocker.

When we lost power the other day it was because a tree got blown right over on the main street near our house and pulled the wires down with it. I saw the tornado warning on TV that afternoon, and not 10 minutes later the power was out. (P.S. It was back on when we got home from work the next day, so it was out less than 24 hrs. And our water heater still worked, so that was nice for showers the next morning. But funny thing about washing your hair when you have no power - no hair dryer. Yeah, that was awesome. And a whole nother topic.) The rain and winds came roaring in - there was a quickly moving stream along the side of the road; I was really amazed at how quickly there was a TON of water around. I think I lived in the desert too long. :) And apparently the winds were 50-60 miles an hour - the top of my neighbor's tree blew right off - 20 feet of tree, lying in her yard!

And tonight - it started to look like rain, and then the thunder and lightning started. I stood on my porch and watched for a while - it really was beautiful. The rain doesn't always break the humidity, but sometimes it helps. Tonight it was a heavy hot wet feeling, and the sky was lit up again and again by lightning. Sometimes you could see the strike of lightning itself - a jagged line down the sky - and sometimes it just lit up the sky without the distinct stripe. I was amazed by how it continued - I stood on my porch for a little while, watching it. The memories that I have of lightning from when I was a kid were just brief, violent storms - a few flashes and then gone. This was more than that - I watched the location of the lightning move across the sky - the flashes came one right after another - again and again and again. And the thunder - a constant background noise behind the lights in the sky. Since the sky was dark, the clouds were light against it, but then when the lightning would flash the clouds would appear darker in contrast to the lit-up sky.

It was fun to watch, and new to me, even though I grew up on the east coast - I don't remember the lightning and thunder continuing like that.

And it was peaceful, in a wondrous-dangerous-weather kind of way. I like where I live. :)