dixie storms

five minutes ago, it was bright and sunny and hot as the dickens outside, and now it's dark as hell and raining sideways. it's thundering incessantly, and the sky looks ferocious. and i gotta say, man, i love me some of these Southern storms we get down here. i really missed them when i lived in new york--reminded me of that lone justice song. when i was a kid, it was all my mama could do to keep my ass in the house when one of these storms would open up--i wanted to be outside in the middle of the awesome display of power that was the torrential rain and the thunder and the lightning. i lived for that ozone smell when lightning struck a tree in the woods. maybe i have a secret and well-buried death wish or something. just last week, we all went out on the beach to watch alberto come through, and the waves were just terrific! the sand was blowing (exfoliating the crap out of my legs!), the surf was booming, and the rain just kept coming down. a storm at the beach is a special thing. what we didn't know was that as we were standing on the beach squinting into the wind, there were a bunch of water spouts about 10 miles away. those you can keep. although i WOULD like to see one. from a long way off. once. and maybe a tornado. but i digress... what i am seriously hoping for right now is that we don't get one of these monster storms tomorrow when we go see big bad voodoo daddy outside! keep your fingers crossed for us!