Tonight's After Dinner Whiskey Hour Soundtrack...

A cheesy cell-phone pic, me bein' too lazy to go get the real camera.

We were pleased to watch a storm roll into P-Ville this evening and dump some much-needed rain on our parched earth.  Not a lot, mind you, but enough to wet the streets, dampen down the dust, and render the air sweet and fragrant.  It was also enough to produce the rainbow pictured above after the storm had passed.

We're still on our classical music jag, this being the second day of God-Only-Knows how many.  I was reminded of this particular piece as I watched the rain come pelting down, even though I didn't hear it this evening...

Storms are almost always violent in the southwest and Grofé captures the essence of a southwest storm perfectly in "Cloudburst."  And so it was this evening... there was the proverbial calm before the storm, then heightened wind and rapidly dropping temperatures, followed close-on by pelting rain... rain of such force and violence that it renders conversation impossible due to its very noise... and thunder, of course.  All very, very entertaining from my safe and dry vantage point on the verandah.  And all too short, alas.  But we takes what we gets and we're grateful for it.

About my classical music jag... this could go on for weeks but I suspect it won't.  There was a time in the way-back when we went for about two years without listening to any pop or rock 'n' roll at all... only classical and jazz, with a little country and bluegrass thrown in.  That was immediately after the maid quit, when it seemed every goddamned pop/rock song I heard carried some sort of painful memory with it.  So we did what was only natural: we avoided the genres.  That was actually pretty pleasant, for as long as it lasted.