Monday Musings: Thunder and Lightning

That just about sums up our Saturday night here. We had a pretty intense set of storms go through here. Loud, boomy, echoing thunder and some pretty intense lightning. The radar map showed strikes all around us. And the rain was torrential. But it seemed to soak things down well, and we really needed that kind of rain this season.

The dog was not terribly thrilled with the weather, though. He wasn’t quite as terrified as Murphy used to get, but he was uncomfortable. He didn’t quite know what to do or where to go for a bit. I think he wanted to go up to my office here, but it’s on the third floor and the weather would have been more apparent there. I sat on the floor with him for a bit, and he settled down. Then I let him keep the blanket and I sat back up in the recliner. He curled up on the blanket under the raised footrest and went to sleep. A bit later, he jumped up next to me on the recliner like he normally does at night. This was the worst storm he’s had to deal with since we’ve had him, and I’m glad he doesn’t seem to be really freaked out. He didn’t want to go out, though. I tried to take him out for a last pee during a lull in the rain, but the lightning and thunder rolled back in and he just wanted to go back in the house. I took him back in, because I didn’t want to force him and make things worse. I will say the lightning streaks while we were out there were gorgeous!

That was probably the highlight of the week. The rest of it was pretty dull and hot and humid. We’ve been spending most of our time inside with the air conditioning. When we do go out, we don’t go too far or play too hard. Lambeau would run until he collapsed, I think, especially if he has a ball to chase. I don’t want him to get overheated. And, honestly, I don’t want to stay out in that kind of heat for long, myself.

One thing we have a lot of out here is toads! They are all over at night. We have a couple that sit on the side of the house and garage up by the lights, because that’s where the bugs are. But there are some just sitting in the middle of the road, and we had a tiny one on the porch the other night. And one poking his head out of the water reservoir of one of the window boxes. They’re kind of cute, in their own toad-y, froggy sort of way.

Now we head off into another week. It’s mid-August already, isn’t it? Summer is running down to the end, and we’ll be seeing all that Fall foliage starting to appear. That means those lovely, crisp fall days are coming. Let’s all enjoy these last weeks of Summer!

(Image from noaa.gov)

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