Severe storm in the late afternoon

 Today starts a marathon of forecasted evening storms.  Weather looked good through 3pm with storm clouds moving in for 5pm.

I take these storms seriously.  I also know that storms can come sooner than forecasted, so a 3pm storm could be here an hour earlier.  I like to take my weekend hikes in the early afternoon but the forecast today really limited my options.  I had things to do in the house in the morning so that time slot was also taken.

I wanted to check out the Gold Hill drainage.  Surely water is running well there, but instead I remembered I had laundry to do.  The lucky dogs today were Hansel and Sahne (a good pair; they play well with each other). Sweetie was in fine form today so she came along as well.

My choice was the Palominas trail head again.  I wanted to see if the water level has increased any but instead it's receded some from the side wash.  Hansel and Sahne dove into the swift-flowing water to retrieve a stick I threw.  Sweetie sat on the sidelines and stayed closer to the shore.

I walked them for two miles.  That's just enough to get them exercised, but not too much to exhaust them.  I kept it short because I wanted to get to the laundromat by 3pm.  The laundromat closes at 5pm and I wanted to make sure I had enough time to wash my clothes.

There was no live band at the brewery next door, despite one advertised for 3-5 pm, classical guitarist Kurt Hauser.  Perhaps he cancelled because of the weather forecast?  I didn't stop in the brewery, so I started a load of clothes, went to Burger King/Safeway for food, then returned to the laundromat to pick up my clothes to leave.

That was perhaps a wise decision, as it began to rain on my drive home.  This storm was moving over Bisbee, but Hereford looked clear.  I was able to drive away from this storm and even managed another short stop for the dogs by the river, but now lightning over the Mules and thunder in the south gave warning that there was more to this storm.

Clouds were indeed dark over Hereford when I got home, but I raced against the storm with Hansel and Gretchen one lap around the block.  I had to walk fast as the rain started when I got back on my street, so we raced back to the truck to wait out this storm.

Gretchen hates storms.  She huddled close to me in the front seat, with Sweetie and Hansel in the back and Sahne in the other car by herself.  It even hailed.  We four sat in the truck for over an hour before it stopped long enough for me to get inside the RV with Gretchen and to get the wet clothes that were in the back of truck inside to dry all over again.

It rained until 11:30pm.  Hopefully all my solar panels are still working.

I got an email from SteveS announcing to all hiking club members that Bill Breeding died August 2nd. He was 91 years old.   He was a retied LTC and a Vietnam Veteran. He hiked until his early 80s, telling me he was having problems with his balance, but still kept an active schedule with his ATVs and RV trips with his son Bruce who'd fly in from Georgia to spend time with him.  Kevin and I always enjoyed chatting with him at the Manda Lee Bar, but I stopped going there in 2016.  I should have tried harder to stop by there again this summer to see of Bill was around.