THE TEASER

Argggghhhhh!! Come on and rain already. The anticipation is brutal. It's like waiting for Christmas knowing you are getting the Red Ryder BB gun AND a pair of protective eye wear. It's hot (over 100) and humid. Shall we just say muggy. Yes, muggy in Arizona. Go figure. These are always the worst two weeks for weather in Arizona; the two leading up to the monsoons.

Not that it is hot, we're used to the heat. Not that it's humid. That is a novelty and it indicates there is a promise of rain. The two combined though just sucks. Add to that the anticipation of the rain - the two weeks it takes the clouds to decide they are ready to release that moisture to cool everything off and the earth determines it is ready to receive it, so we can experience the true monsoons. Thunder, lightning, dry washes running, rain curtains, everything sparkly and cleaned of the perpetual layer of dust, towering clouds, and spectacular sunsets (though the last two having started already).

One of my fondest memories occurred the first summer we were here; a completely foreign land after being uprooted from the green and lush of Massachusetts. I walked into a rain storm. This was 20 years ago and I still remember the wonder I experienced when I felt the first light drops of rain which then quickly progressed to larger, fatter and more plentiful drops within 10 steps. The realization that I was at the edge of a storm dawned and then solidified when I tested my theory and retraced my steps to return to dry land. All the difference of 20 feet. I can still hear the 'plat', 'plat', 'plat' of the rain hitting the ground changing tempo as more and more drops fell. I can see the puffs of dust as the water hit the dry, dusty ground. The traditional light brown dirt speckled with a few dark circles proximate to me, then morphing to solid dark brown at a distance, as it turned to mud. My first inclination that there might be something redeeming about this new desert home after all.

So up until it actually rains there are teasing clouds building every day, taunting rain curtains, where the rain doesn't quite hit the ground but you can see it falling, trying to make it to earth. During this time it is just plain uncomfortable. Once the rains actually fall, things cool off, the still high temperatures don't seem to matter quite as much and the humidity seems to go away. Weird, but there it is.