Can't we have normal rainstorms, like everywhere else?

We should have known to expect bad weather last week, after washing the car for the first time in months. It's kind of pointless to wash it often, as it just get covered in dust days later. (seriously, people DUST THEIR CARS here) But the tiny bits of road tar should come off periodically. So wash it we did. And the next day: rain, hail and tornadoes. Even though it only rains about once every six weeks here, and then only very briefly.

It hailed on and off for almost a half-hour. Hail about the size of an eye. Luckily, our car happened to be under a roof at work, and the two tornadoes were elsewhere in El Paso County. But the rain turns the area dust into .... mud. And the car got filthy on the drive home.

So this past weekend, K. went at it again. The car sparkled anew. And then Monday night, all of Juarez awoke at 3 a.m. to a hailstorm to end all hailstorms. Eye-sized hail again. There was so much of rain and hail piled up on our back patio, it looked a cranberry farm when they float the berries out of the bogs. Amazingly, some were still there the next morning. (we went back to bed at 4)

So now the car is black again, and will probably stay dirty for a long while. Most of the giant puddles on the roads have dried up. I spent a lot of time Tuesday morning trying to figure out the safest way to work. I opted for the route with the lowest speed limit -- wise choice. There were only a few potholes that would have swallowed a non-SUV wheel.

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