Now this is monsoon season weather!
I just popped into my Mac OS X Dashboard to check the definition of a word and, while I was there, got this peek at the Weather widget for this week.
T-storms!
Stay tuned for more flood and lightning photos this week. I live for this kind of weather these days. (And yes, I know I really need to do something about that.)
Just really busy.
Those of you who read this blog regularly might think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. I haven’t. I’m still here.
Last week, I was very busy working on The-Book-That-Must-Not-Be-Named, which, as usual, has an extremely tight deadline. This year, it’s even tighter given that I need to get back to work on my Leopard book to make that extremely tight deadline. So I haven’t been putting much time into the blog.
This weekend, we drove up to our place at Howard Mesa, just to escape the monotony of home. There, we were treated two two thunderstorms in the same day and nice, cool weather. Since we only planned to be there overnight, we left Alex the Bird at home to fend for himself in a cage full of food, water, and toys.
Sitting on our hilltop, we were treated to a beautiful sunset, just before the second storm rolled in.
I played a bit with my new camera and managed to get some outstanding lightning shots by placing my camera on a snack table with its lens propped up, setting it to shutter speed priority, and setting the shutter speed to 30 seconds. I pushed the shutter release by hand and waited. 15 of the 20 shots I took included lightning. I think this one is the best.
I got to finish reading a book I’d started on Friday evening, The Lighthouse, by PD James. More about that in another post (I hope).
On our way home, we had a bit of an off-pavement adventure, driving out to Sycamore Point, which overlooks Sycamore Canyon, west of Sedona. The road is usually passable by any vehicle, but it was pretty muddy yesterday and a storm passed though while we where there. There was a great view of the canyon, which is a wilderness area and off-limits to motor vehicles. The light wasn’t favorable for photography, but I took a few shots anyway.
I realized that the spot was very close to a cliff dwelling I’d spotted from the air the last time I flew a direct course from Howard Mesa to Scottsdale and have become determined to track it down and see it again from the air.
We met our friend Tristan for dinner. He’s between jobs, between homes, and between girlfriends right now but not having a bad time. His helicopter will be back from its annual inspection on Friday and we’re hoping he lets Mike fly with him for a few hours at a good rate so Mike can get his R44 sign-off soon. He’s looking for a job as a pilot, but isn’t really in tune with the job market so I’m not sure if he’s going to be able to get the kind of job he wants.
At home, Alex was waiting for us and happy to see us.
There’s more, of course, but I need to get done with The-Book-That-Must-Not-Be-Named, so I have to get back to work. A more pressing problem is that I threw out my back this morning — for the first time ever! — while shoveling horse poop and I’m in incredible pain just sitting in my chair. Let’s hope I can get work done.
They’re not kidding!
Okay, so I’ll eat my words.
Right after my last post, when I claimed it would take at least an hour to get the wash flowing, the wash started to flow. It was a trickle at first — as it usually is — but by the time I went down to fetch the horses five minutes after this photo was taken, I had to walk through flowing water to reach them.
It was raining like hell at the time and I was wearing gym shorts with a rain jacket. I was dry from the waist up and soaking wet from the waist down. My legs were covered with the junk that had been floating in the water I had to wade through. I took this shot after going back up to the house for my camera. Here’s where the horses had been taking shelter from the rain. All that brownish gunk is floodwater with standing waves.
A half hour after taking the first photo, I snapped this second one. It’s the same view plus a ton of muddy flowing water. The wash is flowing dangerously fast. In fact, anyone stupid enough to walk or drive into it would be swept away — as our garbage pails, neighbor’s fence, and horse feeders were. Those are drawbacks of having occasional waterfront property.
It got scary for a while. My neighbor’s horses live about 4 feet above the flood plain. But the water started making its way in. Soon, three of them were standing in about a foot of water. There was no one on that side of the wash to rescue them and I couldn’t cross over. Fortunately, they stayed calm. The water started to recede not long after I realized the danger.
As I type this, my neighbor is trying to rebuild his road with a Bobcat he has just for that purpose. I’m wondering how much fence is blocking the driveway under all that shifted sand and muck. Three Phoenix news helicopters are operating over town, video taping the receding floods. I’m starting to wonder why I’m not out there with them, getting a good view from my own helicopter.
It’s only 2:30 PM…maybe I will take a little flight…
Alerted by a Mac OS X Widget.
It’s raining like hell here — FINALLY!!! — and I thought I’d peek at the Dashboard Radar in Motion widget for the area. Imagine my surprise when it displayed a Flash Flood Alert! (If you’re wondering, I live in the vicinity of the “e” in Wickenburg on the map.)
The rain really is coming down here and there’s some water movement off my house, down my driveway, and down the road leading to my home. But the big wash that runs past my house has a long way to go before it has enough water to start running. I’ll keep an eye on it, but we’d need at least an hour more of rain like this to get to flood stage.
Hard to work when there’s finally so much great weather outside. It’s been more than 3 months since we got a good rainfall here.
Missed us again!
The forecast actually called for rain here in Wickenburg. And the storm got ever closer, as you can see in this timelapse, with dark gray clouds and high winds. But, in the end, it past northwest of us.
Dang!
Here’s the timelapse:
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Remember, after clicking this image, you may have to wait a few seconds for it to load before it starts playing. Be patient and click only once. It’ll play right in this window. QuickTime is required.
The good news is, the storm also dropped temperatures. At about 3 PM, when I stepped outside, I discovered that it was in the low 80s outside. That’s 20° lower than normal! Yippee! We shut off the air conditioner and opened as many windows as we could. Even slept with the windows open last night!