Walkin' after midnight

What a summer we've been having weather-wise. Just a few nights after that amazing heat-lightning display there was an absolute gully-washer (literally, in terms of our beleaguered gravel roads!). The intense rain and the thunder woke me around midnight. I immediately checked the weather map on my phone and saw the storm wasn't going to lighten up anytime soon, so I got dressed and went outside to explore. The lightning allowed me to see that the tiny creek in front of the house had become a torrent, flowing over the road. I turned back when the water started getting in my Bean boots.
When I went back inside and dried off I checked Facebook and found that several locals, including the Sharp-Eyed Friend, had been rudely awakened by the 12:27 a.m. Flash Flood siren on their phones and had taken to Facebook to express their displeasure. How they managed to sleep through the downpour in the first place is anybody's guess.
When I got up later that morning, the creek was burbling along in its channel as usual and the driveway and road were already drying up. The only sign of the flash flood was that the grass and weeds along the creek were flattened.
And people are still talking about that heat-lightning storm we had back on July 20. One kind reader took the time to write to me and said she was in her backyard during the storm watching both the Longwood Gardens fireworks and the heat lightning: "It was an amazing display of man vs. nature. As always, nature won!"