Monday Morning

Today’s high is 108. Our low temperature was 88 degrees last night. I feel drained. Monsoon season is just starting. We desperately need rain. We need a break.

I love the smell of the desert when it just starts to rain. The dry dirt, the cactus, the trees, the animals, everyone getting wet for what has been a long hot time. It’s a wet nature smell. The cool the rain brings, the soothing, I crave it. It’s a smell I encourage you to experience yourself because there is no way I can really explain it.

The weather forecast isn’t giving us great rain news. Maybe 20 percent chance? I wonder if they really even know. Storms can just pop up out here. Fingers crossed.

The dogs and I get up early every day. They have their routine. They don’t care that we had company all weekend and I’m tired and want another hour of sleep. To them 5 am IS another hour of sleep so I get up unless I want another cold wet nose poke to the face.

I’m blindly making coffee and look up and watch as Jethro wobbly on his old morning legs slides off the front ledge of our yard down into cactus and what not! ( J-dog turns 17 in July!)

I fly outside in t-shirt and underwear, no shoes and scramble down to where a very old and confused Shiba Inu has landed. He’s fine. He’s so old and crazy at this point I’m not sure he even knew what just happened. The other two dogs are no help. Cotton and Tucker come running to investigate sending more rocks and dirt rolling down at me and Jethro who is now so confused I just pick him up so he doesn’t tumble down any further. He hates to be picked up at this point in his life. Barefoot I’m trying to hold a squirming 27lb old bag of bones and not tumble half naked down another thirty feet into cactus and rock.

Its barely 5:30 am if that! I crawl me and Jethro back up to the top with the other two silly dogs hopping around us, both of whom can easily run up and down this hill sideways.

I stand up, brush off the dirt and turn to see this sky.