Inside The Inland Empire

Last night at my home in Alta Loma the back yard thermometer read 91 degrees at 9:00PM. When I went to bed at 12:10AM, that same thermometer read 86 degrees. I was thankful for the drop in 5 degrees, but I left the air-conditioner running anyway - It's rare occurrence to leave the A/C running in our home all night, so it must be hot.

This morning I awoke to 92 degrees at about 8:30AM - a few hours later I drove to the Vons on Haven avenue and the little electronic thermometer in my car informed me that it was ONE-HUNDRED-AND-FIVE-DEGREES. Although I'm not one to argue with the complex digital gadgetry that our friends at Toyota include "at no extra cost", the amount of sweat rolling down my back and soaking my shirt was a good indication that it might actually be hotter.

It wasnt until I was driving back home, north on Haven Ave, that I noticed the huge thunder-clouds rising above the mountains over Rancho Cucamonga and east toward the Cajon pass. For days now Ghostpainter, Dallas Rains, Fritz Coleman, and those sexy former strippers on channel 11 and channel 13 have been telling us to watch for thunderstorms "tonight", and to be honest, I've been secretly hoping for some rain. I even took the Toyota to the car-wash yesterday in hopes that the rain-gods would see that as in invitation to ruin my newly cleaned car. So far my car-wash-rain-dance has been a waste of $11.99. The best we've gotten thus far was the distant rumble of thunder one night earlier this week and news reports of heavy rain in the desert 50 miles east of us for a few hours yesterday.

My desperation for rain comes not only from desiring a drop in the outrageously high recent temperatures in the Inland Empire, but I'm also hoping for a bit of relief for the crunchy-dry dead brown coating that covers the dirt in my front yard that was once my beautiful green lawn. Even though I've increased the watering time on the automatic sprinklers and faithfully stand in the yard like a fool each evening with the watering-hose, the grass continues to wither. I do however have some wonderful large toad-stools and mushrooms sprouting out of sand-pile that was once my grass to remind me of my impending bank-account-busting water bill.

So please, join me in a collective prayer for rain, lower temperatures, or a sale on lawn fertilizer at Home Depot.

Update: 3:15PM July 22

I took a picture of my weather-station ($19 at Radio Shack!). It has a wireless thermometer transmitter in the back yard, on the patio, and also records the temperature inside. The wireless transmitter is mounted in the coolest part of the backyard, in constant shade (facing north). The number on the top (109) is the temperature on the cool part of the patio. The number on the bottom (79.3) is the indoor temp after running the A/C since yesterday. I think it's official - Rancho Cucamonga is actually Hotter than hell.

All the photos posted were taken today, July 22, 2006

Update: 6:00PM July 22

Moderately strong winds are blowing trash and dead leaves all over the back yard, and those dark clouds that were of to the east earlier this afternoon are now right overhead. The temperature has dropped to a chilly 101F, but still not a drop of rain.
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