Since that time I’ve notice more and more vehicles come with fog lamps. I have to believe the auto dealerships are ordering them that way because the cars are a few hundred dollars more expensive with them installed. I mean, this is Phoenix we’re talking about. I’ve lived here my whole life, nearly forty years, and I can count the number of times I’ve seen fog in Phoenix on one hand. In fact, I can count the number of times I’ve seen fog here on one finger. That’s right. In forty years, there has been fog in Phoenix ONCE. For about two hours.

Yet just about every idiot on the road whose car is equipped with fog lamps turns them on every day. Apparently because they can. Either that or they’re all suffering from some kind of fantasy delusional fog inside their cotton-brained heads. It bothers me on a lot of levels, but mostly because they hurt my eyes. It’s not as bad as having your brights on, but it’s close.

Who’s more mental, them? Or me? Either way, it’s really satisfying to finally get that off my chest.

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.

1. I have shamelessly backdated this post to the date I shot it and would have published it except that when I got to the art gallery last night I found my partner had removed our internet connection temporarily – she needed to troubleshoot equipment at her home. So I’d have published from there, but couldn’t. Continuing the spirit of NaVloPoMo, it’s okay to backdate this post because I DID make this video on December 7.

2. This kind of continues my confrontation of fears thing. I made this video while I was really angry. Normally I wouldn’t do such a thing. And then I’d usually delete it because I don’t want to show that side of myself. Certainly wouldn’t post it. My reason is not wanting to put that negativity out there. But I’ve realized that means I’m not presenting myself as a whole person. So here is me angry, not raging angry, or over the top, but angry.

3. We really do have a state law that prohibits smoking within a reasonable distance from building entrances, and that distance is defined as 20 feet. After researching the law, it seems the place of employment is supposed to remove ashtrays from areas where smoking is illegal. But I realized from watching my footage that there is an ashtray here. So it’s probably not the employee’s fault, but the institution’s fault for providing an ashtray where there shouldn’t be one. I’ll be letting them know about it – I go to this area so regularly that I can’t let this one go. Someone’s always out there smoking when I walk by, and it nearly always triggers an asthma attack for me.

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.

I created five Lumiere videos between June 27 – July 22, 2007, in response to encouragement from fellow vlogger Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen. It was fun. My videos, along with those of many others, were linked to from videoblogging.info.

In August 2007, Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen and Brittany Shoot published the Lumiere Manifesto. I wish to publicly state that I disagree with most of the manifesto content, and that my Lumiere videos should not be construed as an endorsement of the manifesto. I am not interested in engaging in a conversation about the manifesto’s relative merits, or what I view as problematic. I simply wish to disassociate my work from it.

Original Post

More video from the rare, rainy day at my mom’s house in Clarkdale, AZ. We had been watching rain come down about 15 miles away (as the crow flies, of course) when the lightning started. I thought, “I wonder if I could get that in a Lumiere video?” I asked and I received.

I copied my tweets into the video – unfortunately iMovie can’t make them bigger and therefore easier to read. Pause and read ‘em or just ignore ‘em.