The view from here...

Apparently I missed a LOT last night.

We don't have cable and didn't want to deal with the whole converter/antenna thing... so that means no TV! (Yes, I'm serious... No I'm not totally crazy, and really, it's not that bad.)

That means I missed out on the fun of the tornado watch, the hail storms and various other sorts of havoc unleashed by Mother Nature last night in Tucson.

This was the sky yesterday at 4:00...

(Images courtesy of www.cs.arizona.edu/camera/ )

(love the wall of dust and cloud blocking the mountains... that normally look like this:)


Pretty, no?

This is what I saw driving into work this morning...


And this is how it looks right now (at 11-ish).


Yes it's clearing, and behind those clouds is a bunch of snow... oooh, the mountains are so pretty with a white blanket... but there's more crud on it's way.

The poor folks living in the midst of those clouds on Mt Lemmon are without power and all roads in and out are closed. Period. The end.

People living in Phoenix had their own fun with the airport closing down, the wash filling up so fast that it overflowed the banks and shut down a highway for the afternoon. (Michele - how'd you fare yesterday?! You get effected by any of that?)

Flagstaff & Sedona are buried under many inches of snow.

Cats & dogs... living together. Mass hysteria!

I know, all the peeps in the Northern climes are wondering what the big deal is. It's winter, it snows, get over it.

It's SOUTHERN ARIZONA! That's what's the big deal! We're practically Mexico - land of fun and sun, and more sun... and then there's the sun! And miles and miles of kitty litter, er, sand, as far as the eye can see.

We don't deal well with rain and snow. And this is a lot, even for the areas that are used to it.

The good news is that it may help cut down on fires later on this year, and heck, it's something different besides the amazingly georgous weather we normally have... And my house didn't get blown away to Oz last night and the only little people I saw this morning were my kittens. Though one of them kept changing a rainbow of colors...


and was tugging at the curtain... I'm sure that was all perfectly normal... right?