Summer of storms

It rained here every day for more than a week. And by rain I'm talking lightning, thunder, high winds, unrelenting downpours, power outages and, on at least one occasion, hail.

I spent five terrifying minutes trapped in my car in our driveway a couple of Mondays ago, watching our flag pole snap off and go flying, a large branch crack in half in the tree closest to my car, and quarter-sized hail pound against my east-facing passenger side window at more than 60 miles per hour. As our squatty, thick-trunked live oak trees whipped back and forth like Willow Smith's hair while horizontal bands of rain twisted and cavorted off to the west in the wake made by my car, I remember thinking to myself, "Is this a tornado? Am I in a tornado right now?" I thought I was gonna die, y'all.

But I didn't, and now we're back to sun and humidity and the hills are alive with the sounds of chain saws and wood chippers. The narrow streets of my suburban neighborhood are clogged with roofing and fence repair trucks, and I think we're all realizing that compared to the storms (and resulting power outages) that have been hammering much of the rest of the country this summer, we got off pretty easy. But still: yikes. No more of that, please.

Other stuff going on with us right now:

• Tonight is the opening night of H's play at our local community theater! We saw a preview on Wednesday and it was fabulous and she was wonderful. I am so excited for/proud of her.
• Fingers crossed, but the Trileptal seems to be working for C! It doesn't keep his misophonia from being triggered, but it does seem to dampen his reaction to his triggers. We're still nowhere close to his target dose so this is very encouraging. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.
• I'm less than 6 pounds from my goal weight. Booyah! I'm still working my way through a stack of Jillian Michaels fitness DVDs and I continue to freaking love them. Right now I'm alternating Ripped in 30 (I'm on Week 4) with 6 Week Six Pack (I'm about to start Level 2). They are so hard, but they only take 30 minutes a day and the results have been amazing.

Alrighty, then. C and I are off to buy him lots of soup and pudding and whatnot because he's getting his wisdom teeth out on Monday. The fun never ends around here, yo.