The Storm of the Century! OK. Not really...but there was a whole lot of hail to contend with, so that's something...

Well, it's official.

Monsoon season in Arizona has started!

(OK, it may not actually be official, but it's been raining...and on one case hailing ((at my house)) for a few days now.  Also?  Since I mostly refuse to watch the news, I think the mere fact that the swamp cooler at Snap! Snap! is barely making a dent in what is humid ((yes, for Arizonans that's a totally different scale...for instance:  Usually around 5% humidity I'm sticky...what?  It's dry here!  But my good friend Claudine called to say that it was 107 and 40% humidity down in The Valley...and while that may not be a lot, together it's crazy ridiculous ThankYouVeryMuch)) So, it may or may not be official about the start of the Monsoon season, but I am drawing my own conclusions here based on observational facts and being a long-time resident.

So there.

During the crazy hail storm Sunday Mena actually looked at me, rolled her eyes and got down from her perch on the back of the couch (she lays there to catch the cross breeze from the windows) and got on the floor, where she sat rather pathetically looking at me out of the corner of her eye while I ran around the house from window to window to make sure that the insane amounts of water were not flowing down the driveways and into the back door.

Although, I think I may have helped that problem out with all the hoe-trench-digging I did a while back.

Then again, one can never be too sure about such things.

So, that was a scary storm for the cat...and she was probably further traumatized by me running around because I was being further traumatized by the memories of me with a hoe in hand running around in ankle deep water with lightning striking all over while trying to divert water...In my pink sparkly socks.

Which didn't make it through that particular storm.

Like the casualties of war...

Socks:  The Casualty of weather

(and a poorly planned out drainage system...although, the be completely fair...the house has sat there since 1925, so perhaps the dirt and silt has finally just caught up with everything?)

Luckily though, we mostly came through that unharmed...except for the cat, who was traumatized, and a couple of shredded leaves on the plants outside.  And later when I was sitting on the porch, I watched a little bird jump through all the branches of the pyrocantha bush knocking water on itself and taking a bath.

Which can only mean one of two things:

1.  Birds also do not like hail

2. I need to fill the birdbath with water because there are some dirty birds out there who are being forced to bathe in my bushes...