Monsoon Season

 

Here we go again with our daily thunder storm. 

 

As I tap-out this post it is coming down like a horizontal waterfall.

The monsoons are unrelenting. 

Checked the boat today just in case……

 

Edit to add:  Storms have passed, wind gusts of up to 75 MPH, third tornado touchdown in four days for NE Wisconsin.  Emptied three inches of rain from the gauge.  

 

 

 

Drowning

The garden is a shambles. 

Just about the time things begin to dry out we get clobbered with another storm.

Recent rains notwithstanding, southeast Wisconsin continues to suffer in heat and drought.  Here it's been relentless rain storms.  A nice cherry tomato plant drowned to death. Onions rotting in the ground.  Other stuff thrashed and trashed.

Nevertheless, I did salvage these today.

 

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub

House received a well-deserved exterior deep cleaning.  

Dirt, dust, mildew - gone!

Windows sparkling inside and out.

And the concrete walkways and patio got a scrub too.

Paneless Glass Cleaning.....

Shooting Stars On Tap!

One of the more spectacular night viewing events of each year is the arrival of the Perseid meteor shower.  It began July 17 and will continue to August 26.  Peak viewing opportunity is Thursday evening.  With ideal viewing conditions you may be able to spot 2-3 meteors per minute!   

Meteor showers occur when the orbit of the earth passes thru space debris left behind by comets and asteroids. These pebble-sized pieces of debris enter our atmosphere and burn-up creating shooting stars.  This particular meteor show is as a consequence of our planet passing thru the debris left over from the orbit of Comet Swift-Tuttle.  

Take note that this comet completes an orbit around the sun every 133 years and every time it comes back to our neighborhood in the solar system it get closer to the earth.  If Swift-Tuttle were to hit the earth we’ll all go the way of the dinosaurs!  (Although scientists believe that possibility is probably about 2,000 years from now. 

The Perseids are named after the constellation Perseus - which appears in the northern hemisphere between the constellations Auriga and Cassiopeia.  Look for them radiating from that location in the northeastern sky.  

in 2020 we had a nearly-full moon interfering with our view of the night sky.  This year the moon will be only 27% illuminated which will mean less light pollution in the sky.

Get out the bug spray and keep your fingers-crossed for good viewing conditions and enjoy the show

The Garden Chronicles

This time of year summer storms can brew-up quickly and without a great deal of advance notice.

And unlike a gentle summer shower They can arrive with high winds, horizontal straight-line winds, punishing volumes of rain and sometimes hail.

It is for this reason that gardening this season has been such a challenge of late.

Growing your own vegetables has become a contact sport.....

Summer Storm

This sucka brewed-up fast and furious and like many peninsula storms dissipated just as quickly.

Full disclosure: When the lightning commenced I beat it out of Dodge from the wet porch.

 

Bare feet ya-know.....

Analogy of the Day

 

Pizza is like sex 

Sometimes mind blowing

Sometimes really good 

And never bad