So much fun

This has been an unbelievably cool, wet summer so far, and it's taking a toll on my garden. It's not like we get nice soaking rains followed by days of warm sunshine. No. We get 3.5 inches in less than an hour with 70 mph winds and lightning followed by days in the 60s and 70s.

Last night, we got one of those little Texas t-storms. You know it's gonna be a good 'un when the thunder turns your chair into a giant vibrator. From 7 pm to about 8 pm, the rain came down so hard and dense that I couldn't see the end of my deck 12 feet away. My rain gauge this morning showed 3.6 inches, and I know 3 of that came in an hour. Every time we have heavy rains, we lose our wifi. For hours. No connectivity at all. No posting, no emails, no harassing wirecutter, it sucks.

But wait! There's more! It's not just the torrential rains, it's wind and lightning. The neighbors across the alley lost half their metal lean-to to high winds, and the neighbors catty corner lost a tree to a lightning strike. That was the coup de grace of the evening. Not that the lightning strike that close wasn't spectacular enough, but a large 12-foot branch fell on the transformer in the alley, exploding it and catching the tree and fence on fire. The sound and flash were like a bomb going off, and suddenly I was wearing the Cute Chicks like a very heavy coat. It took several hours to calm them down enough to get them to sleep.

It's still raining, a gentle slow soaker. But the ground is saturated, the ditches are full, and my garden needs snorkles and swimfins. We're supposed to have a few more hours of this and a high of 67. Went out to look at the damage and ran into the neighbor who lost the tree and fence. He and a couple of buddies were out replacing the charred fence and cutting down what was left of the tree. In true West Texas fashion, man of few words, he summed it up, "Never much liked that tree."