It rained

It almost never rains here.

Furthermore, there's hardly ever a slight variation in the weather. It's about 72 degrees and mostly sunny with a marine layer that lifts sometime mid-morning.

All. Year. Long.

In fact, shortly after we moved here almost two years ago, one of the local TV stations did away with its in-house meteorologists in favor of using a more cost-effective LA affiliate for "local" forecasts.

After all, there's no weather here, so nothing to report.

So even the slightest variation in the atmosphere around us is reason to take note. And if it's precipitation that has broken the pattern, well then, you've finally got a tool for breaking the ice with the other parents waiting in awkward silence at the kindergarten pick-up corral.

My kiddos go nuts when it rains, too. Today brought a warm, sultry soggy rain. At least, it started out with just rain.

C lobbied me successfully to ignore the lingering symptoms of his cold and allow him to frolic in the front yard in only his bathing suit.

I obliged.



He delighted.



There's something invigorating about moisture falling from the heavens.



It leads to stomping on pavement and taking on animal-like qualities. Growling even.



Then C spotted lightning on the horizon.



That was new, too, and exciting.



Then thunder cracked over our rooftop with an ear-splitting pop that rattled our house and shook our nerves. Car alarms sounded and my big boy came sprinting and screaming back to the porch and into my towel-draped arms.

We watched the rest of the storm from my bedroom window.



This storm turned my tiger into a pussy cat today.

And just like that, the weather gave me enough material for an entire blog post about just ... the weather.