Last evening and night we had thunderstorms roll through for about 8 hours. The storms went by about every hour. There was lots of thunder and lightning. The rolls of thunder seemed to go on for minute.
Before the storms there were lots of clouds that built up in the evening.
I like to see cumulus clouds build up and have the sun light on them. I can imagine the tremendous updrafts in those cells.
So here's some of the clouds I enjoyed.
There are some days in our lives that we remember with all the details. July 20 , 1969 is a day for me that stands out. This was the day of the first lunar landing.
I had more than a usual interest in space , particularly the lunar landing. Up until July 20 , I had still been in the Arctic with out much radio reception. I was happy to be south where I could follow the landing on the car radio.
On July 20 I was driving in northern Ontario north of lake Superior. It's a sparsely populated area with few services. You just want to cover this territory and get to civilization.
I did find a radio station that covered the lunar landing. I was glued to the radio. It's funny I didn't drive into the ditch. I was listening to the final count down and then all of a sudden I had no radio reception. I had to wait until radio reception returned to see if they landed safely. Yes , they had landed safely so now we listened to the first astronaut getting out of the lander and walking on the moon.
By my calculation, this happened 52 years ago. I still remember all the interest and tension of this event.
The micro Manager and I usually go to the Jackpot Casino for lunch on Wednesdays. It's a special senior day and they have good lunch specials. We usually meet some other seniors we know and have visit. At least the micro Manager has a visit.
We can also enter a draw. I won it one time and it happened to be $400.00
I wait for, and meet the Micro Manager in the same spot each week.
It just happens where I wait there is a baccarat machine. Most Wednesdays the same individual is playing that machine.
Last Wednesday there were two men of Asian decent and they were playing together.
He would make his play , get off the stool and watch what happened in the game. They would chatter back and forth in an Asian language. I could not understand one word of their language.
All of a sudden he exclaimed a loud "Oh shit!" It was so sudden and unexpected that it got me chuckling. The only word I could understand from them was Oh shit!
Yesterday I kept my eye on the sky and the weather radar. We were supposed to have violent thunderstorms. I wasn't so worried about violent thunder showers but about the amount of precipitation we might receive.
Two weeks ago we had a major downpour and our intersection was flooded. We did not have any flooding in the house but I have a sump pump and it was cutting in in less than every minute.
Monday morning about 5 AM we had another major deluge. We had about an inch of rain in about an hour. So the water table came up and the sump pump ran every three minutes.
So you can bet I was watching clouds and following the radar to see how much precipitation we might get.
As it turned out all the thunder cells missed us so no more water was added to our water logged soil .
I'm watching the weather forecast for the next week and you can bet that I don't want any rain.
Now I like clouds. These were in a thunder cell build up this afternoon.
"If I were rich man's son,
I'd sit by the river and watch it run "
I had a spare half hour so I decided to go and look at the river.
The Red Deer River is quite high and very turbulent. We've had much rain lately. There's lots of snow in the Rocky Mountains. Usually by this time the snow in the mountains has melted. There s also a dam that they are letting extra water run.
I tried to get a good view of the river but I was not in a good place.
A major ski resort, Sunshine, near Banff was open today for Canada Day.
The photo on my header shows the river as it normally is.
Well, my blogging head is still not organized to put on some decent posts. My head is some where else . I've found this summer very busy. It's been a very windy spring and outside work has got behind.
Now my first tiger lily popped into bloom today. I see that I got a poor photo of it. The other flower photos are for people to identify and I promise this time I will write the names down.
I've been busy this last while and have not had the time I would like to read and comment on blogs. Summer is a busy time . However, events this week kept me busier than ever.
We had rain this week. Not inches and inches of rain but about 2 inches and we had some minor flooding of streets and the odd basement got flooded.
This area gets about an average of 12 in of rain per year. Because the subsoil is clay the water goes into the ground very slowly.
However, the photos are in front of my house. The canoeists are my neighbors. My house did not flood but it was worrisome.
