I hate it! Wind and rain! I live on a hill so we get major wind. When storms move in from the west, our hilltop home is a grand attraction to lightning. When I was a kid, I thought thunder was the bad guy. Sure, whoever told me that?

Last week's storm was very scary because our house was hit by lightning three times. The strike took out the answering machine, came in as a ball of light near the microwave, and came down the hotwater heat copper pipe in another ball of light. I was shaking, to say the least, and sat on the floor in the living room with the dog until the storm passed. Luckily, I had just stopped talking on the phone to my sister. Toast.

Yesterday's storm had only one lightning strike , again, near the microwave. But, the wind was really blowing and rain came in sheets. It took a branch out of a big poplar tree in the backyard. We spent some time picking up leaves and branches. In places, it flattened the flowers. Otherwise, no damage.

Thank goodness for the rain. This area seldom gets 90 degree temps day after day. The lawn was burning up. Chance of forest fires was high. And no one could sleep at night, even with a window air-conditioner on.

Today is gloriously sunny, cool, and green. However, I still hate rain and wind and lightning.