Thunderstruck

 'Tis the season for monsoons in Flagstaff. So far, and to the best of my knowledge, no crazy flash flooding. We have had exceptional thunder and lightning shows with the rain. So much so that our evenings are often spent watching and listening from the futon on our back deck until the rain moves into our neighborhood. We did see several fires that started from one particularly aggressive storm and our 'complex' had to run off the backup generator for a while due to a power outage. 

We had a great turnout for volleyball this week and renewed our reservation of the gym through the rest of the year. Roger has continued fighting for one evening a week for basketball in the good gym and finally won through, with the pickleball ladies agreeing to use the smaller gym for one of their reserved days. 

Lightning as a backdrop.

This is an expensive time of year with license renewals and our 6 month car insurance lump due, among other things. I'm taking the Mazda off our insurance so hopefully we get that sold pretty soon. Roger's brother committed to buying it, but also said he would trade an old truck Roger loves for the car, so we're kind of just waiting on Roger's decision. 

I mostly finished training our new PT in the Sedona/Cottonwood area, so this should be my last week helping out. Due to overstaffing and lack of foresight that may mean I have to take some time off (paid or not, my choice depending on PTO availability). Which sucks, but I am using some of that time to hand out with Mama Sama on her journey down here in September (that I may have guilted her into since she visits the Utah crew so often). 

Also this bucket holds 4lbs of blackberries. 

On Saturday, I made a last-minute decision to head to Prescott to take advantage of their pick your own crops (while Roger was busy working a few side jobs for extra spending $$). It was hot and I left too late. I went through 2 camelpacks worth of water for several pounds of blackberries and strawberries. Some of those blackberries were the length of my fingers and twice as wide! If you're wondering, the secret to finding blackberries is to look near the ground and/or be a mouse. And the secret to AZ strawberries is that if you can't see any flashes of red from a glance, there's likely no berries on that plant.