I love the monsoon season and the wild, crazy storms we get during this time. This particular storm was absolutely breathtaking. First we saw lightning more than 20 miles away, but striking multiple times a second for hours. While we were on the leading edge, the cloud formations looked like long fingers, and we could see the lightning flashes above and between them. It was strange and surreal and stunning.

Then the storm reached us, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees in seconds. Suddenly hail was hammering my window, and the rain was coming down in thick sheets. Within minutes the water in the streets started to rise. The bad news is, we’re at the low end of a dead end street.

Maybe you can tell from the video still, which is looking out at our street from our driveway. On the left is a 7-foot block wall separating us from neighboring condos. At the bottom of this wall there are three or four little cutouts, 6 inches high, that supposedly allow water to flow through.

Well, not tonight. We experienced flash flood conditions and high winds. A friend told me large trees were felled not a mile away (good thing we cut down our termite infested trees that leaned toward our house). The streets might have been able to drain properly, except it’s “bulk trash” time in our neighborhood. Our street lacks a sidewalk, and no one wants to kill their grass by leaving a huge pile of trash sitting on it for two weeks, so everyone piles trash just over their property line on the street, and the city picks it up – this happens four times per year. Scheduled pick up was August 25, but here it is August 28 and the trash is still there. Blocking the water in the street from reaching the drain holes. Causing the water to flow into our yard, and up over our porch. At 9:30 pm we were half an inch away from having water come over the threshold of our house, with no end to the storm in sight.

So out into the street we went, to move all our neighbors’ trash piles either further into the street, or up onto their lawns. These are huge piles, generally of tree and shrub trimmings, but with the occasional piece of large wrecked furniture thrown in. Everything should be neatly bagged, but people from outside the neighborhood tend to scavenge these piles for scrap or useful items. I have no problem with that normally – I’m all for recycling and reusing.

But this time they cut open bagged lawn clippings, which were impossible to clear away in the flow of water, and these were mixed in with palm fronds that had large thorns on them. Also, some dog crap.

So it’s dark, I’m soaked, it’s cold, and I’m covered in lawn clippings, when my asthma kicks in big time. By the time I found my inhaler I could barely get air in or out of my lungs. I started to panic, which makes it get worse really quickly.

But the meds worked, and we cleared enough debris out of the path of the water that we were able to prevent the water from entering our house. For the second time this week. I’ve sent yet another letter off to City Street Maintenance before posting this and going to bed. They’ve promised to keep an eye on drainage in our neighborhood, but obviously it’s a roving, a lax, dare I say a lazy eye.

I’m exhausted. Goodnight.

So, did I heroically rush to my husband’s aid, or stop to comfort the cat? No. I ran for my video camera.

This footage shot on my Xacti HD1A, which is crummy in low light and does not get the best audio. In fact, the audio is my biggest disappointment. The thunder was so loud the Xacti just couldn’t handle it, so you’ll hear distortion instead of multilayered crackly surround-sound thunder. But you can imagine it. Just think back to the first time you heard really loud thunder as a kid. That’s it.

I let the camera roll for 15 minutes. For that entire time there was a lightning strike approximately every 30 seconds. I’ve condensed it down to 10-15 seconds apart rather than subject anyone to a 15 minute video. It’s still too long, but weather nuts like me will probably enjoy it.

Funny stuff happened during the storm. Note the screen shot from the video. That lightning is between me and my back fence less than 30 yards away. (You can’t see it in the small version of the video, which is why there’s an AppleTV version for download.) Yet we can’t find any trace of the strike in our yard. The power went out for a split second, but not long enough to reset most of our clocks. But when it came back on our evaporative cooler started up of its own accord and pressurized the house. We thought it was wind blowing through the attic until we noticed the AC unit wouldn’t stop running. Eventually we sorted everything out, but we didn’t get back to sleep until 4am. The neighbors with dogs definitely had it worse. The stray cat that lives outside is all fluffy and clean now, and all the plants are happy plants today.