Rain in the desert can be destructive

It started out with storm clouds

Yes, it’s nice to have free water for the plants, but too much rain in the desert all at once can have devastating circumstances.  As most people know, it rarely rains in the desert and certainly not buckets full.

Water rushing from the rain gutter

Last night and today, it’s rained more here than it has since we first moved here.  The winter of 2004-2005 turned the streets around here into flowing red rivers, it washed out landscaping and flooded homes.  Twenty-plus homes fell into the Santa Clara River here.  Things were a disaster for quite a while.

The street in front of our house

Another view of the street in front of our house

I haven’t seen anything like that until today.  Our street wasn’t entirely covered with water this time, but it did wash out people’s landscaping and rose about ten feet up the driveway.  Our home is on higher ground, thank goodness, but the residents at the end of the street weren’t so lucky.  Four-five homes on that end got flooded.  One house with a basement that has always been a problem had about four feet of water in it.  The other neighbors got about five inches.

 This is our riverbed in the back.  It follows the natural slope of the land so any water drains off.

After the rain stopped a moment and enough water receded to drive on the street, my husband drove around the neighborhood to access the damage.  People had furniture out on their driveways and there were clean up crews there.  We loaned a shovel and warehouse broom to some neighbors we know so they could remove some of the red dirt.  Their entire backyard is history.

The only thing that saved the new house they’re building two lots down from us was the empty pool.  All the mud and water washed down into it instead of flooding the house.  That will be a major clean up job because once the red dirt dries it’s like trying to remove cement.  It’s in all the pipes over there and the pool drainpipe.  I guess once they shovel the pool out they’ll have to get a roto-rooter in there to take care of the rest of it.  The contractors told my husband the new people wanted to move in next month.  Luckily, this doesn’t happen often because that lot is very low and, as I said before, I think they’ll have future troubles with that house.

So we’re high and dry and thankful all we have to replace is a bit of landscaping in the front.

But roads are flooded and closed all across our area.  They’ve even closed I-15 because of flooding and mud.  If anyone’s thinking of moving here, this would be a good time to drive around town and see which areas flood.

Spring in the Desert

Birds on the wall - greening of the desert

Things are sprouting here now, which makes me so happy I survived another winter.  Of course, it was extremely cold this year and not all the plants will make it.  There are sad looking ones all over town.  Raven’s enjoying all that spring has to offer too as he watches the lizards emerge and birds and chipmunks scampering about outside.  Happy chirping and animal sounds come in through the windows.

Lizard on wall

 

 Tootie and Raven napping

He’s friends with Tootie now and they take naps together.  Koki still watches from nearby.  I hope she accepts him eventually.

Rain storm with rainbow

 We had a rainstorm here the last two days.  It’s unusual to have much rain in the desert and it doesn’t last long, but the skies can darken rapidly from not a cloud in sight in the morning to dark dreary skies by late afternoon.  The winds have been chilly so I had to shut the windows, much to the disgust of the cats who like sniffing the air.

Painting of neighbor's house

The neighbor had her house painted last week and it really looks nice.  She lives across the street from me.  This was the highlight for the day, watching as the workers masked everything off and took the rain gutters down so they could spray on the new color.  The cats watched from my window upstairs while I worked on the room since I’m still cleaning it out in there.  I wonder if I’ll ever finish.  Raven did get tired and took a nap in a bag on the floor.

Raven getting comfortable in a bag on the floor

 Someday soon a house will be here

There are two vacant lots on the left side of our house and now one owner is going to build a house.  They’ve been bringing in loads of dirt over the last two weeks.  We’ll still have the vacant lot next to us and then the new house.  The neighbors aren’t pleased because it will block some of their views.  I’m actually surprised we haven’t seen any action over there before now because those two lots were sold way before we moved here.

Chipmunk in bird feeder

Bird of Prey on our back gate

I caught a chipmunk that made his way up the shepherd’s hook and into the bird feeder.  I wish I had a shot of him shimmying up the pole.  A bird of prey also came to visit.

We drug out the tunnel we got for the cats years ago – actually a kid’s toy from Target.  They all love it.  It’s seen its better days, but all the cats still enjoy it as they race through it and the best of all – it makes noise.  Raven’s enjoying his kitten hood so much he didn’t even come to bed for two nights.

 Raven in cat tunnel

He eats like a little pig and is getting bigger.  I always have to wash his face afterward because he has cat food on his nose.  He’s good about getting his face washed, but I wish he’d stop rooting.

Today I read in the paper that a nice couple adopted Quiver.  She’s the cat that was shot by an arrow a couple of months ago.  The lady I got Raven from was nursing her back to health after they did some surgeries on her to repair all the damage.  I hope the kid gets some kind of sentence when he goes before the judge on April 2.  There’s been quite an outrage over it here.  I don’t know why anyone would do such a thing.

That’s it for now from here.  We’ve had workers here and have everything finished up except for my part of getting rid of things and then shampooing the carpet.  My husband’s chomping at the bit to get the for sale sign up.

My next posts here will probably be for the A to Z challenge the month of April.  I have most of them written, which is good because it’s going to be busy around here.  I’ll be visiting as many blogs as time allows.  Don’t forget if you want to participate, go to Lee’s blog here and sign up.  You have four days left to do so.

Stepping into my Dreams is an Adventure into the World of the Unusual

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I’m sure some of you are like this too. Unreality is really the only way I can describe it. I’ve been keeping a dream journal for years and the first thing I do when I get up is write down my dream. Of course, sometimes my husband starts talking and most of the time the dream flies out of my head, but not always. If it’s weird, it stays with me, and he knows when he sees me scribbling in my notebook that I’m recording my dream. I’m sure he thinks this is an odd practice, but I could write a whole book on dreams.


Just last night, I dreamed I was in a town and the letter “K” was missing from everything there. There weren’t any on the street signs, or the license plates, or the stores. This was driving me crazy and when I asked where they were, no one was alarmed at all. They all thought this was perfectly normal.

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My dream flashed to the middle of the night and we were asleep when there was a pounding on the door. The pounding would not stop, so my husband got up to answer it. In walked a group of people who were partying and celebrating “K” day. They sat on the edge of the bed and told us all about it. When they finally left, it was almost dawn and we decided we should go and do that to them in the middle of the night, but we never did.

When we went to town later that morning, there had been a strong wind or perhaps a small tornado during the night. There was debris everywhere. Shingles had flown off some roofs and some were inside the stores along with dirt, pieces of brush, crumpled paper, and other debris.

Photo courtesy of Maxexphoto

I helped a little, old gray-haired lady sweep up her shop, which was full of various figurines. There were many cats sitting around on throw rugs that lay rumpled up because of the storm.

Then I was riding in the back of a pick up truck going to a funeral in the same town. I could smell strong exhaust fumes back there. I was hollering, “Please somebody, just tell me why all the “K’s” are missing before I die.”

It was then that my husband woke me up. He said he couldn’t find his cell phone, which ended up being in the pocket of his pants in the closet.

You can see how a writer would find a missing “K” a problem. I’ve had dreams weirder than this, but this is a good example. How about you? Do you have any weird ones to share?