WONDERFUL-WORLD

I can see the sky to the north - black as night.  The sky to the south is light, but darkening.  The wind is picking up.  There is a very cool breeze.  It looks like I might not have to water the garden today.

How does it look in your neck of the woods?  I heard that the Woodlands took a pounding earlier today.

No, I'm not singing along to a good Bad Co. tune.  Did anyone notice the red skies last night?  Around 8:00 pm, after the sun had set, looking toward the north, with a bit to the NE and NW (from the SE side of town), the skies were lit up red, red, red.  The sun had set already, and this was far too north to have been a late sunset.  Shell wasn't flaring, so we knew that wasn't the cause of the red skies.  We could see the cloud line of blue skies on the edge of it on the west and east side, and there was a lot of lightening in the north, behind the red clouds.  It was odd, but awesomely beautiful at the same time.  I've never seen anything quite like it.  The skies toward the east of it were very dark, and the rain and lightening storms hit us about 20 minutes later.  Did anyone else see it? 

I lliterally watched my rain gauge as it filled to capacity at 5" this afternoon.  I was logged into the weather chat when I lost power at 1pm. and POOF I was gone, and so was my ability to watch the news.  It FINALLY came back on at 7:30.  My pool over flowed.  My neighbors' yards overflowed into my pool, which then overflowed even more. Without power, I couldn't pump it out.  I've never seen my street with standing water, much less with a fire hydrant 1/2 submerged.  Two flood control ditches were at capacity.  My grandson was afraid to let go of my hand while the power was out.  Of course, I had nothing in the house to feed him for lunch that didn't require warming.  My daughter took 2 hours trying to drive the 5 miles home from work due to feeder flooding on HWY 225.  My husband's drive from Pasadena took 1 1/2 hours.  My dog, bless his heart, was taken to the vet to be fixed this morning.  I couldn't get back to pick him up this afternoon, and they couldn't leave their own parking lot, so he's staying overnight there.  And the rains just started up heavy again here.  I need a boat!!!

I was sitting outside about an hour or so ago, melting as I chatted online with a friend that moved out of state.  I was telling him how hot it is now that the rains have gone.  Out of nowhere, it started raining.  BIG drops in the heat.  The kind you smell as they hit the hot patio and deck.  Then a branch off one of my pecan trees came flying across the yard and over the fence.  I watched my neighbor's trees bend over in the wind, then heard a loud CRACK.  Every dead leaf that was in the yard (and some that started out elsewhere!) swirled around in the air before finding their way (of course) into my pool.  My gutters could hardly keep up with the heavy rain as it poured.  The skies stayed dark for about 20 minutes as I listened to the thunder and saw lightening bolts further east.  The thermometer dropped from 100 to 80.  There are still a few gray clouds passing over, but the brunt of it seems to be gone. 

So....what the heck was that?!?!