Up All Night

I have always been a little contrary when it comes to weather - I like rain and snow and clouds and all the things that people complain make them feel gloomy. They make me feel exhilarated and happy. And living in Arizona for the last 23 years has made my love of gloomy weather grow exponentially because absense makes the heart grow fonder. Stupid desert!

Then I got a dog that I love to death but who completely refuses to pee if the ground is wet. Like, if her little paw touches even the tiniest bit of moisture, forget it! The inconvenience of trying to coax "peepee" out of a dog in the middle of the night in the rain for extended periods of time has put a real damper on my love affair with inclement weather. (Pun 100% intended.)

The love part of my love-hate relationship with rain was still winning out even though I spent way too much time hoping that the rain would stop by 8:00pm to allow the ground dry out before I Tibby's bed-time potty.

But after last night, I may have become indifferent bordering on unhappy with rain. Actually, that's not fair. It isn't the rain that ruined my night so much as the thunder. The incredibly loud, wake the dead, shake the walls thunder.

It started at about 2:00am waking Tibby up. I was still kind of asleep, but I was aware that she was up and moving around all nervous-like. Then came the crack that sounded like it may have struck my neighbors house. It was so loud my ears rang for a second after it was over. That sent poor little Tibby into an apoplectic fit of fear which resulted in her pouncing on top of me, digging her claws into my arms, chest and neck for dear life, and then burying her head into my clavicle while she shook uncontrollably for nearly an hour, whimpering in terror the entire time.

I've never seen any one or any thing so frightened in my entire life, as my sweet little pup was of the storm last night. And there was no way I was getting back to sleep so long as she was laying on top of me, claws out, shaking like a paint mixer with the sound of total universe destruction going on outside my window. So today, with very little sleep in my recent past, I'm like Zombie Melissa. You'll be lucky if anything I post today makes any damn sense at all.