The fact I wasn’t able to complete the Tiki bar roof last weekend (more w/ pics in a coming post) didn’t concern me much because the monsoon season doesn’t start here in the Valley of the Sun until mid-June, and even at that the meteorologists around here have been calling for a late start to the season due to an emerging El Nino out in the Pacific or something like that. I figured at the minimum I had a month to get it completed – I mean, it would be brutally hot, sure, but it can’t be a whole lot hotter than it was last weekend when it was 109 and I lost five pounds from all the sweating I did.

Silly me to even think of trusting the weather forecasters.

I was sitting out on the patio late last night enjoying a nitecap of club soda and chocolate protein milk (my new regimen whenever I work out at the gym earlier that night) and noticing clouds moving in from the south and thinking there was humidity in the air, but didn’t give it much of a thought – all the forecasters had said the remnants of Tropical Storm Andres weren’t going to amount to much, maybe a sprinkle or two.

Silly me to even think of trusting the weather forecasters.

4 AM I’m awoken by what sounds like the low, distant rumble of thunder. And then more thunder. And then I hear the wind come up and a few drops of rain starting to spatter the window.

“Life is a sonofabitch”, I think to myself.

By 5 AM the heavens open up and continued to off and on for the next several hours, to the point where while the Phoenix airport got just a smattering – almost unheard of this time of year, here in Gilbert we got drenched with nearly a quarter inch – even more unheard of.

…With perhaps more to come with thunder and dust storms expected this afternoon.

…And perhaps more to come next week when the anticipated remains of Hurricane Blanca creates a repeat performance.

The temporary roof on the Tiki bar came through OK, even though an even more temporary section didn’t survive, blowing off at the first indication of trouble. Figures.

Which in turn means that next weekend there will be no Goodboys Invitational prep time for The Great White Shank. This project has gotta get finished, and pronto.

Ah well, such is life in the Valley of the Sun when your monsoon season comes a month early.