You’d never be able to tell by looking at the skies this morning:

but it absolutely STORMED last night. We’re talking rock-the-house thunder, bright-as-daylight lightning, and enough rain to make turn the gulch behind our house into a roaring river.

Ben was out with the guys, so when thunder shook the windows around midnight and woke me up, I called him to make sure 1) I wasn’t dreaming, 2) everyone was okay, and 3) the world wasn’t ending.

Can you tell I was a bit freaked out?

I couldn’t fall back asleep with the constant thunder and lightning, so I laid in bed for a while pondering whether I should turn the computer on and watch something [nah, what if the electricity goes out?] or read my book [Born to Run, which is really great so far], but I was exhausted.  In the end, I fell back asleep just in time for another bright flash to wake me.  This continued through the night, so I figured we’d be forced to stay indoors today.

But I live in the middle of the Pacific, where weather is entirely unpredictable and patterns come and go pretty quickly.

So after waking up, looking out the window and seriously wondering whether it was all just a strange dream, I set off to find the gushing river I heard all night in the gulch, and by then it was down to just a stream (it’s usually completely dry, so a stream by morning means we got quite a bit of rain).

And, were it not for the signs of heavy rain everywhere, I would probably have just chalked up the stormy evening to my imagination.

I’m grateful for the rain, but it really did come out of nowhere. We’re all still sort of confused and not entirely sure what to do with ourselves today yet, but I’m sure we’ll find something .

I’m off to spend the rest of the day with my big bro (he heads back to Hawai`i island tonight)!  Happy holidays!

Any strange weather in your area?