Monsoon Mountainscape

This was the view from the road above the house around 7:00 p.m. today. If we ever move—which we really have to do because we need more space to live like grownups—I may not be able to just step out the front door, walk 100 yards, and take a shot like this. Then again, I might! But this is why I’m driven not to miss whatever may be out there at any given moment.

The above scene followed a sharp, hard-hitting storm this afternoon that brought the heaviest rain I’ve seen in 14 years of living in New Mexico. Sure, most of those were drought years, but still. It came down heavy enough to turn the driveway into a river in 30 seconds. The hail was almost horizontal in the gusts and ricocheted off the windows! The excitement was over before I thought to shoot some video, which really is a shame, because the noise was awesome and the cat was terrified. Being from San Luis, she’s usually not. These Colorado mountain cats are something else, you understand, and I would never mess with one from Costilla County. But maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, it’s cold and wet now, and there’s actual mud outside. I’m closing windows so it stays warm enough not to need a fire like my neighbor built. That’s right. Across the road, about the time I took this picture, white smoke rising coming from the chimney on August 7! (46 °F tonight, they tell me.)

Summer in the Rockies, dig it!

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