Thunderstorms and early mornings

It's very early on Sunday morning here.

For some reason, my brain, acting completely independantly from the rest of my body, decided to wake up this morning at 5:30. I fought this and I fought it hard. I managed to stay in bed for another hour (it is Sunday for Christsake!). I lost the war however and here I am. I've showered, had breakfast, wrapped several Christmas presents and started a blog entry all before 7:30.

I always find that on my days off, I can never sleep in, no matter how hard I try. When I have to get up and go to work however, I could easily stay in bed until 10am. *sigh* The universe can be cruel.

Anyway, last night we had a truly delightful thunderstorm. All day it had been extremely windy, enough to bring down several trees in the neighbourhood. It was supposed to be hot but here in the hills, it was pleasantly cool. I was told that down the hill (as us hillbillies refer to suburbia down on the flats) it was rather humid and uncomfortable.

About 6ish, Christian and I went to visit my sister who lives in the foothills. We were all watching a movie when the storm started with loud bangs of thunder and lightning that really did make night turn into day for a split second. My neice (my other sister's daughter who was staying the night with Barb's kids) is terrified of thunder so she was huddled up on the couch with my brother-in-law so tight that she could have been sitting under him. Barb and I decided to go outside and watch the storm from the verandah as we both love thunderstorms. Well, you should have seen us jump a mile in the air and both pissbolt inside after the loudest clap of thunder you could possibly imagine. It must have been right overhead and it sent vibrations through my chest, as if I was standing next to a speaker at a rock concert. When we got inside my neice was howling, the dog was shaking in a corner, the baby looked shell shocked and Barb and I were pissing ourselves laughing.

The storm continued for quite a while and Christian and I had quite a show as we were driving home. We went the back way home up Red Hill and the view was amazing. There was lightning all around us almost constantly but directly above us was a huge hole in the clouds which allowed the brightest stars to twinkle away. It was like there was a big dounut in the sky iced with lightning strikes!

The storm has passed now, leaving the sun shining and a warm day ahead of us (around 30C or so) which should give us a beautiful day for a bbq down by the river.

P.S. While I was writing this, I had an msn chat with my brother-in-law as he has been up with the kids since 5am. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one awake so early on a Sunday morning!