It's raining, it's pouring

The old man is snoring. 

Lightning overhead when we went to bed

And flooding in the morning!

We get some fall thunder-boomers here, and they last for hours. Back home in Colorado raging thunderstorms are rare. When we do have them they last for a few hours at most. Here, the rain can come in and stay for days, raining off and on, never letting things completely dry out. I welcome the rain because it breaks the heat. But, it's kind of flat here, and so the rain pools up and floods in lots of places. 

The photos below show our street, and an intersection near the Aldi grocery store. Police closed the road near Aldi because the water was so deep and covered a long stretch of road. I was out with our niece in the car, and we drove through lots of water. I saw it lapping up against the garden walls, and running into the courtyards. I wondered if the car would stall but we got through it ok. Only a few bicyclists were out, I was impressed by the hearty folk who braved the rain. 

The dog is afraid of the thunder and lightening. So we let him in when it's bad. However, he is an outside dog and is only allowed in the mud room. He keeps trying to sneak into the house and we shoo him out. He knows better, but fear is a powerful motivator. He has a secure place behind the door where he feels pretty safe so he settles there. 

The water drained off prettying quickly after the rain stopped. It is humid here so it certainly didn't evaporate. Some ditches still contain water, and it's hard to know whether it will drain off, if it rains again tomorrow or tonight the water won't have a chance to drain. 

I like the thunder and lightening shows. It is amazing to me how long they go on, it's hours and hours. All night long, and all day long, the show continues!

I think the most recent storm was strong even by local standards. I saw folks taking photos, and there were stories on the news the next day about big hail in Budapest. How did I know of stories on the news, you might ask, since I don't have TV. Well, our niece arranged for me to join the local gym for a month! (I need it too, I can't keep up with the wonderful food our family cooks!) The gym has TVs and so I saw the report on the news. It was neat looking at the TV footage of homes and city streets. The picturesque buildings are normal to everyone here, but still very interesting to me. 

The family's Facebook friends posted lots of images and some video footage. One video showed kids playing in the water. I told my sister in law that when I was a kid in New Orleans we had similar flooding. Other kids got to go out and play in the water. But my mom never permitted it. "Right, it is dirty water," affirmed my sister in law. Thanks, mom!