First storm of the monsoon brings promise of more

Every year at this time, I clean the big window in my living room with a mix of vinegar and water, wiping the glass clear with scrunched-up newspaper.

I know it seems like bad timing with news reports that the first monsoon storm is on its way.

But that big window is my big screen for curling up on the couch and watching the storms. It’s better than the

Weather Channel.

I saw the storm coming on Monday night through the window.

I went outside as soon as the wind kicked up to rescue the cushions off the Adirondack chairs on the front porch and got a mouthful of dust.

No rain yet. I watched out the window for it. It’s exciting to me and better than anything on TV. We’ve had nothing but sunny days, and I need a change. Just as I’m growing weary of the heat, the monsoon arrives.

Of course I could do without the dust storms that fill the pool with pine needles from the neighbor’s trees, make driving so dangerous and clog my airconditioning filter.

But I love when lightning crisscrosses the sky and the warm rain falls.

When my son, Sawyer, was a kid, he’d pull me outside at the first splattering of rain to spin in rain, arms wide. I miss that.

So when the rain starts, I call to Sawyer to take a break from his Applied Linear Algebra homework, and he joins me on the couch to watch it splatter the window I’ve just cleaned.

I open the front door, and the air that rushes in smells of warm asphalt and baked grass. The temperature has dropped to 74 degrees.

When the storm passes, we go into the backyard and pull lawn furniture out of the pool and toss fallen branches into the dumpster in the alley. I don’t mind.

The first monsoon storm of the season promises more — more rain, more respite and more shows through the big window.