Saturday, July 22, 2006

A Welcome Rain Falls Not Softly

A heat wave swallows a majority of the continental US, but here in Arizona high heat is expected. This time of the year we are waiting for our monsoons to bring some relief. It can be 118 degrees and suddendly drop thirty degrees in a matter of thirty minutes. The drastic drop is due to the thunder clouds that linger in the horizon most days only to dissipate like our hope for relief. Yesterday, however, those lingering clouds followed through with their flirtations. This is what Phoenicians wait for all summer. Once these clouds deliver, we emerge from out homes and gawk. We don't see rain that often.

I took Stella out to experience the monsoon. She approached the falling rain gingerly but made a beeline for all the pebbles to shove them in her mouth.

It smelled like desert rain and creosote--it smelled like much-anticipated relief.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I live in SE Utah, and I LOVE the smell of the rain. Nothing could smell better, although rain in the mountains is a close second. And I know what you mean about gawking when it rains. You can tell the locals in our town, because when it rains all the tourists run inside and the locals run outside.