Not perfect.

A couple weeks ago, I spoke to a group of 4-H kids at a camp here in town.

The topic of the camp was photography. Some of the kids told me they tried taking photos, but they were frustrated because they mess up all the time.

I told them that I mess up all the time, too. I told them to keep trying and practicing, just like you practice at sports.

So, there's the back story for you.

The fireworks in my neighborhood started a couple of nights ago. Friday night was not a good night. My FitBit basically screamed at me the next morning.

Anyway, I kind of screwed up that night.

I kept hearing a whining noise. One of my dogs, Penny, sleeps with me at night. Specifically, she likes doing covers and snuggling as close to me as humanly possible.

I thought Penny was whining about something, so my solution to the problem at 3 a.m.(ish, exact time not known) was to knee her.

Now, it's not like I knocked her across the room. Every time I heard whining, I swung my leg across the bed and tried to wake her up from the nightmare she was having.

Only, the whining didn't stop.

I don't know how much time passed before I actually woke up fully and turned the light on.

Raven, Pickles and Penny.

When I did, I found that my dog Raven, who had surgery and is wearing a cone, was stuck underneath my nightstand. She was whining because she's basically blind, and she had no idea where she was or what she was doing in life.

(Me too, dog. Me too.)

So, I left my poor blind dog trapped underneath of a table while I was kneeing the snoring dog who wasn't causing the problem to begin with.

Oops. Sorry, Penny.

We got three inches of rain that night. Raven doesn't like things that make noise, including storms. I'm guessing she came over to me during the night to tell me about the storm, but got lost along the way and ended up under a table instead.

Oops.

If you care, I took Penny bye bye the next day to make up for my crappy Pug parenting. She got to go see Grandma, and she was pretty happy about that.

Sorry, Penny. I'm not perfect.

Also, I went to the store late last night and bought Raven a nightlight. Last night we slept well. No one got needlessly kicked or stuck under a table.

So, that's a win.

Conehead, also known as Raven.

This is not a weather story.

I first noticed the sky yesterday afternoon. It was kind of overcast, and Mother Nature started to spit out a few rain drops.

I mentioned it to my family, and asked if everyone had their car windows rolled up.

Soon after that, the downpour started. And then came another round, and another, and another.

It hailed between downpours several times.

I don't know how many times it rained or hailed, but it seemingly went on forever. My little place in the world is in a drought, so any type of precipitation is usually welcomed with open arms.

I'm sorry for the people who got hail damage, wind damage, tornado damage or any other type of damage.

Bad stuff aside, it's kind of peaceful to look outside and see Mother Nature giving us something we so desperately need.

We pray for rain in church every Sunday for farmers. While we could have done without the ugly stuff, that prayer was answered yesterday.

My hometown got anywhere from 3-5 inches of rain. My phone was buzzing the whole night with severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood watches.

Flash flood watches in western Kansas? Those are still weird to get.

Lovingly stolen from the US National Weather Service Dodge City's Facebook page.

My Dad and I drove around afterwards to look at the town. There were odd-looking rotating clouds for a time. The pond/lake at the community college was flooded, and a bridge that normally rests in the middle of the lake came loose, and was floating at one end of it.

There was water flowing in the river (although it probably didn't last very long).

Western Kansas needed a drink badly.

Funny side story:

How to get the latest local weather data is instilled in my brain from being a newspaper reporter. Last night while laying in bed, I did this without even thinking:

Go to local National Weather Service website: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ddc/
Click on 'Latest Text Products'
Click on 'Local Storm Report'

And there you go, all of the hail, wind, rain and tornado reports for my hometown for the night.

In other news, I'm a nerd.

Haha.

When it's busy weathering outside, one thought flashes through my mind - At least I don't work at a newspaper and at least I don't have to write a weather story tomorrow.

Score.