More on Rain!

I know I've already posted on the rainy season, but just wanted to say that it's really raining right now! Lots of thunder and lightning. Oh, boy!!!

We'll soon be leaving for San Diego 3:30 am tomorrow night) to see our 7th (or is it 8th?) production of Wicked.  We hope it will continue to rain while we are gone and continue through at least July if not August.  Not sure how much longer we'll have electricity - those last two bolts were really close!  Set the dogs a-barkin', for sure. Make that the last 3 bolts!!!

Time to take the kids upstairs to bed and snuggle down under the duvet.  And it's pouring down - not just lights and noise.

A note from the next morning - it finally let up around 4 am, so we got a good soaking, much needed.  It's still overcast this morning, though.

Talk to you all soon....

Rainy Season at Last?

It's probably too early to announce the beginning of our annual rainy season, but there have been signs:

• Last week it poured down one night; not too heavily, but rain with thunder and lightning for about half-an-hour;
• Sprinkles after the Day of the Locos parade on Sunday;
• Last night it rained again, arriving late in the evening but it was rain leaving us with thunder and lightning on it's way out of town, followed by brief showers early this morning.

We often have glorious clouds - and even threatening-appearing dark rain clouds overhead, but it doesn't rain often.  More often the clouds blow away leaving us with glorious sunshine instead.

Rain is cool; rain is sorely needed (the Presa is woefully low); rain brings cooling breezes and a freshness that is missing at times during the rest of the year.  Rain means summer has arrived.

To paraphrase Oliver!  'Rain, glorious rain: showers, storms, and just sprinkles...'

How Did You Spend Your Summer Vacation?

Just returned from eight weeks in the Midwest, where I'd helped my sister and brother-in-law refresh a home from pre-1898 (some accounts say it began life as a Civil War farmhouse, but that seems questionable).  Many of the supplies that were determined to be needed had to be procured in Terre Haute - about 30 miles away - and innumerable trips were made when local suppliers could not provide our needs.  Our tasks involved painting, patching, staining, tiling 2 bathrooms and a kitchen floor, installing kitchen cabinets and appliances, light fixtures, window coverings, carpeting, buffing up the wooden floors, a laundry, re-constructing a back deck, painting the porch, replacing part of the porch ceiling, installing doors and a bit of door-bling.  Nothing quite like 10-foot ceilings and huge windows, eh?

So I returned to San Miguel on Tuesday, the 12th - after driving like the wind across the United States from Indiana - to the sound of aerial bombs!  It was Corpus Christi and that called for hourly explosions, as expected here in Mexico.

But they didn't stop.  The next day, while enjoying margaritas at the rooftop bar of La Azotea, the hourly bombs turned into fireworks as the sun dropped behind the hills to the west of town.  What a way to celebrate the return of normalcy!

And, speaking of normalcy, tomorrow is the parade of the Locos - a chance for folks to dress crazily and parade through town.  We're hoping to snag a viewing spot near the Instituto (which is near the beginning of the parade) and avoid the crowds at the Jardin.  We've at least one  friend in the parade so we'll be looking out for him and cheering him on.

How could this be compared to life in a little burg in the midWest???