The Dark of Day

23Jul2005Thunderstorm01

This 1:45 this afternoon I sat at my desk in front of a window, but had to turn on my reading lamp. As is usual during summer when we have very high temperatures and equally high humidity and a cool front comes in from the northwest we have a thunder booming lightning storm with torrential downpour.  It had just begun to rain and the winds bent the cottonwoods toward the house when I got the come hither sign from Peg. She just stands nearby curling her pointing finger to signal I should jump to her attention. I did, because I have learned that it is easier to jump than it is to withstand the wrath of a woman scorned. She walked me to the back windows in the now sun-less sun-room and pointed at the trees bending in the wind and the rain rolling off the roof. She fully expected me to say “we should go hide in a closet downstairs in the basement.” Instead, I responded with “gee, this is really a beautiful thunder boomer, I haven’t seen a storm like this in a long time.” I went to the front door and cracked it open to feel how much the temperature had dropped. Lightening struck across the street lighting up the dark windy rain-swept sky followed by a thunder crack the likes of which shook the house. WOW, that was close. I’d crap my pants if the flagpole took a direct hit. Peg looked at me and said, “you’re weird.”

“Thanks for the compliment. You think this is bad? I’ve slept in a tent on the East shore of the Bay of Fundy in a storm worse than this. I can go on, and on telling you stories about exactly where I huddled in a tent when we got hit by this kind of storm Relax and enjoy nature at her finest.”

“Like I said, you’re weird.”

Five minutes later the rain stopped, the thunder subsided, and the sky lightened.

 

Cloud Gazing

There are days when all I want to do is to sit and gaze upon the clouds. They make me want to dream. Sometimes, they put me in a stupor, and at others a state of euphoria. At other times, they make me sad, and depressed.

It is fun to search for something to see in the shape of clouds. That one looks like Mickey Mouse, or gee, today they are strips of cotton floating along in rows to infinity. Yesterday, they were massive mountains of white billowy gobs of whipped cream sitting on top of a blue sky reaching for heaven. This morning they were a shapeless gray cover blanketing the earth.

Clouds are scary when they are green, dark grey, black, and swirl around from place to place in a fury. Sometimes they unleash their swirling energy and sweep the countryside in a rage. Other times they are generators of electrical charge that release energy in a giant flash of light that zigzags to mother earth to explode anything in its way.

Ah yes, clouds, they are many things.

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