Monsoon!

Last Wednesday, we were visited by tropical storm Dianmu. The Army, ever cautious, sent us regular updates on Dianmu's progress and told us to secure all outdoor furniture, make sure we have a couple of days worth of water, and turn our freezer to the highest setting. We settled in for a storm. We got...almost nothing. There was some rain. At 3pm, when the storm was supposed to be right over us, it was lightly misting outside.

On the other hand, last night the wind was so rough that I discovered a downed tree on the mountain . Today, Maya and I were out walking when a storm hit. It wasn't one of those occasions where I thought, “it really looks like rain so I'll make it quick,” only to be caught in a storm. This time, it looked like nothing when we left, then got really dark and ominous all of a sudden, and as we were jogging for home the bottom dropped out.

We sought shelter in a picnic shelter, where we were quickly joined by a high school student with decent English. This guy was worth meeting! He is way into Sherlock Holmes. He asked where I was from, then asked if I had ever been to London, Baker Street in particular (I have!) He told me he wants to study psychology in college so that he can be a detective. He asked if my husband was from England, then told me how much he admired the British. I have a touch of Anglophilia myself, so I couldn't really hold this against him. I was incredibly charmed by the whole thing. This kid was profoundly touched by the works of some 19^th century British author. As a librarian, this kind of incident validates me.

Maya, in typical dog fashion, noticed that he was a little nervous of her but was willing to pet her and decided to win him over by getting in his face. When that didn't work, she shook herself all over him. When that didn't work, she got back in his face. (When people love Maya, she'll step up for a good petting, then promptly beg me to move on, having already gained their admiration).

When the storm finally died down, we stepped out into the path, which was now a river, and right into Bobby with an umbrella, who had been searching for us. Maya decided to give him a nice dose of wet dog as well.