It was a dark and stormy night...

We've been hit with the violent thunder storms the last fews days. I guess I should start by saying that these storms are one of the things that I love about living here, but they do cause a certain level of inconvenience.

They always seem to hit during rush hour, which by itself wouldn't be a big deal, the local civil engineering has some added bonuses. There's an interstate and an expressway that run through the city and both are sunken, created in such a way as to serve as drainage when a heavy rain floods the city streets. First to flood are the on ramps and then a perfect hydroplane spot gets created at the exits. During these storms, I avoid the highway going home, not because of the natural disaster obstacle course, but because I know my fellow drivers are not up to the challenge.

Have you ever noticed that everyone claims to be able to drive in snow?? I rest my case....

My sister lived in Manhattan for 9 years, in a neighborhod not far from where Carrie lives in Sex in the City. It's a section of NYC with mostly 4 to 6 floor buildings, most don't have elevators, so they're all "walk ups." Anyway, at the end of my sister's block, Donald Trump built this metallic monstrousity that had to be at least 20 stories that sticks out over all these little neighborhood-like buildings, the provebial sore thumb. And as if the gods had conspired with the laws of physics, everytime an electrical storm comes through Manhattan.... Whether I would be in my sister's tiny 4th floor walk up studio, or on the phone with her hundreds of miles away, the enormous crash-bang sound is unmistakable, and the view is equally blind either way since her two windows looked out the back of her building. Hit the Trump towers again, we'd say in unison, with a giggle. It's now our standard rationalizing whenever thunder hits too close, always the Trump towers, whether we're in Virginia or Texas or Massachusetts or even Mars, I suppose.

But I never mentioned why I love the storms here, did I? We never had storms like these where I grew up. Maybe all the mountains got in the way or perhaps we weren't in direct line with the jet stream like I am now. The storms come rolling through here like there's nothing to stop them. There are sheets of rain and lightning that lights the night sky brighter than day. I've learned not to leave windows open, horizontal rain is not out of the question. And there are times when an umbrella will do you no good. You will be soaking wet in the moments it takes you to open it and the winds will twist it around anyway. You just wait out the rain and it will pass because it always does. The sound of the rain of the roof is to be savored anyway.