Suddenly summer is here. Five minutes after I had gotten home from work last night we had a torrential and violent thunderstorm. It was a classic with crazy wind, solid sheets of water, flashes and then immediate thunder booms. Lasted about 20 minutes, maybe a little more. I ate a bagel and sat and watched. Then, before the rain even stopped falling, the sun came out. I looked outside and saw that my car, parked on the street, was in the middle of a lake. I ran downstairs with the dog and saw that the water was up to my hubcaps (about 4 inches deep). Dog and I wandered around a little, enjoying the water dripping off the trees and sparkling in the sunlight. As I was looking at the big street-lake a pickup truck came racing down the street and drove right through it without slowing down; the spray was spectacular, like a motorboat. Either he was trying to get me wet (he failed) or he was just enjoying the spraying action (fun). I found the drain for the flooded street section; the water was murky with sediment but there was a funnelled whirlpool there. Louise (dog) was fascinated with it and got her nose wet trying to figure out the movement and the slight sucking sound it made. There were some branches stuck in the flow so I pulled them out, which the dog then enjoyed playing with. A minute or two later the street was lake-free. The storm drain now has a thatch of leaves, dirt, bark, and maple seeds, so if there's a storm this evening there will be a repeat performance of the mini-flood.

My San Francisco-based friend Avani and I are thinking of going to Vegas sometime this summer. We may just save our pennies for a more extravagant trip to the Cancun/Cozumel area in the fall. I never take vacations like this, so I'm pretty excited.