We had a summer storm today with hail the size of golf balls. Trees were stripped of all their leaves.

I miss a good, power-outing, sky-flashing, tree-pounding, roof-thundering, sleep-disrupting rainstorm. I haven't had one of those since living in Illinois, really. Even the storms in Boston were always relatively polite - they'd flood the hell out of everything, sure, but you never got the high drama. Now that I'm in L.A., I'd even settle for the wussy Boston rain. Damn you, desert climate.

That blanket of darkness rather surprised me, theora55; I was standing at the kitchen window making cookies, and suddenly everything went dim.

It was so sudden that for a split second I thought I was passing out. Then I peeked up-up-up the narrow space between our window and the house next door, saw the battleship-gray cast of the sky.

Between bouts of cookie-making, I have been reading ghost stories, so the flickering lights just add to the atmosphere.

I just had the same thing happen. I can't tell you how damn happy it made me, considering our drought.

I'd kill for a good thunderstorm. Except there were some in the mountains yesterday, and apparently lightning started over 400 fires, so I guess I'm just being selfish.

LT and I were at the beach, splashing around in the waves, when we saw the cloud. I had just given the 5-minute warning anyway - we both needed to pull ourselves away from the beach for work and class - but it would've been totally moot. We made our way back to shore and folded our chairs as the first drops fell. Then they started to not just fall, put pelt and pummel. The usual panicked beach exodus was taking place around us, as families tried to round up towels, chairs, coolers, toys, and kids and get the whole kit and caboodle up onto the road and into the car. We all raced along the sidewalk with towels over our heads - but grinning all the way. An absolutely wonderful summer storm.

I mentioned to LT that these kinds of summer days always remind me of Robert McCloskey's Time of Wonder. He hadn't read it.

Yeah we have wussy summer storms in the northwest also. And lots of lightning-caused fires. Two summers in a row, I called in lightning strikes that set trees on fire up at Waldo Lake.

Be safe everyone!