Rumble

It's only partly cloudy here, and pleasantly mild, but the mountains are topped by dark masses of cloud and I hear thunder rolling there. It doesn't seem likely that we'll get any rain here, but it's probably already raining on the peaks several miles away. So far the storm isn't causing our lights to flicker, but there might be issues later on.

I might shut the computer down soon, just in case. It suffered a crash earlier today that might have been the result of a power surge, although I was out of the room when it happened and didn't notice if the lights flickered. It might be stormy over the lower Cascades far to the north as well as the nearby Sierras, and an important part of the electrical distribution system runs through the Cascades between California and Oregon.

Anyway, it's much too nice to be sitting in the house today, even with the windows open. I think I'll grab a gook and read on the back porch while the birds provide a musical accompaniment.

Good

It's a good thing I turned the computer off when I did this afternoon. The storm that was rumbling over the mountains moved in this direction, and within a few minutes of shutting down there was lightning flashing and thunder booming all around. It rained for about half an hour, and though it never rained very hard there was enough to give the yard a good soaking. One more rain! (I keep getting my wishes. Maybe I should wish for lots of money. And a pony.) But even though we had no power outage, there was frequent flickering of the lights, indicating repeated surges.

So I survived, and the computer survived. I think the lightning might even have done my brain some good, as I finally remembered to fix some red chard to go with my dinner. It's been sitting in the vegetable bin since I bought it last Friday because I kept forgetting it was there. I feel pretty good about that. I'll be heading into the hot spell with a positive charge, and no need to water the yard for several days, and only half a bunch of chard rotting in the refrigerator. All in all a good day.