Last night I stood on our back porch and watched a really impressive lightning storm for a few minutes. It was miles away but that’s one of the things about living here - you can see the lightning hit like it’s just across the street but not even hear the thunder. There were streaks that went clear across the horizon and lit the sky almost as bright as noon. The rain started at about 9 pm. Then the came hail on and off - sometimes hitting the roof really hard as the wind blew. The thunder came too. Sounding almost exactly as the lightning hit. Some booms were so loud the dog barked. Melon ran for cover under the bed. The lights flickered a few times. I thought it was going to stay off for a minute there. Cody was at work he said they could hear the hail on the roof - which means it was hitting quite hard. Winter and I went to sleep at about eleven listening to the rain. Sometime in the night the hail and thunder woke us up. I think she was barking again.

This morning the porch roof had holes in it. One part is dented and is leaking heavily. I think a branch hit it but I’m not going out in the rain and hail and mud to check. The whole thing will probably have to be replaced. At one time I’d thought about making the back porch an outdoor room - putting an old dining set and my easel out here. Sometimes I have pipe dreams about walling it in and making it into a big kitchen and breakfast room. Right now I just want a roof on it.

I’m really glad we had those four trees cut down over the summer because they probably would have done some serious damage. The hail hitting the small pencil tree in the front makes the whole yard smell like crushed pine.

I wish the Bernalillo county clerk would answer the damn phone. We haven’t gotten our registration confirmations and today’s the last day to register to vote.

I’m almost out of Tazo awake tea. And Netflix is taking its sweet time sending my BBC drama smack aka Series 2 of Upstairs Downstairs. That show has me hooked.

I need to update my book list I haven’t listed the last five I’ve read.