Oh What a Night

Where we live, there's a saying - "If you don't like the weather, give it 10 minutes. It'll change."

Normally, weather is one of our best-kept secrets. People think that because we are known for skiing, it's cold, snowy and miserable. Often, my Dad, who lives cross-country, will call and say "Are you ok? I saw on the news you got 3' of snow this past weekend." What he doesn't realize is that the snow fell in the mountains and it was 65 degrees and beautiful in the city.

We average over 300 days of sun per year and the air is very dry - so when it does snow, it is usually light and fluffy and most of us can't wait to get outside to play with our dogs, slide down a hill on a sled or snowshoe. Yippee!

In the summer, however, we can have severe storms and tornadoes that crop up with very little warning. The other day, my DH and I took the dogs and babies for a walk.

Since our older dog can't walk very fast, when we arrive at the lake, he circles around one way and I go the other - so I can pick up my pace and get some exercise. When we meet up, I've typically made it 3/4 around, so he will turn around and we'll all walk home together.

On this particular evening, it was nice when we arrived, but within a few minutes the skies grew dark, it started to drizzle, lightening appeared in the distance and the wind was so strong that it was difficult to stay off the path. Since my DH didn't hear his cell phone, I had to flag down a guy on a bike to catch up to my DH and ask him to turn around. By the time I pushed the stroller home, my face was dripping with sweat from fighting to push the stroller in the wind. Got a great workout - but not the way I would have preferred.

A few years ago, we had a freak storm come through in the middle of July that tore out window screens, broke a couple of windows in our garage, destroyed our roof, and left gashes in paint near our windows - so we had to have quite a bit of repair work done. Everyone's gardens and trees were destroyed for that year and a few years after. In fact, I think this might be the first year in five years that one of our trees produces plums again.

Last night, Mother Nature was on a PMS binge again. Constant flashes of bright-white lightening accompanied by golf-ball sized hail. When the sirens went off, we each grabbed a baby and headed down to the basement to wait out the storm. Friends living just a few miles from us woke up this morning to find "snow" in their yards.

To my surprise, neither baby stirred. They both stayed fast asleep in our arms and weren't even phased by the noise or bright flashes of light. I am so thankful, as I remember being TERRIFIED of loud noises growing up. I would dread July 4th - when Mom and Dad would drag us to our local high school to sit right underneath the fireworks. I can still remember the feeling of the ground falling out from beneath us as our family snuggled together on our picnic blanket.

Glad we got through the storm last night with only a bit of noise and interruption of sleep.