Passing Rain
Monday, September 29th, 2008
First night under the electric blanket and the windows are open, which is usually cause for a sore throat. The grass on the front lawns are wet with moisture from the morning’s rain and now late-evening dew.
Sunshine didn’t break through until almost mid-day, and tonight, with the overcast weather burned away, I’m thinking about how I used to lay in bed on rainy days and pass the time reading or listening to music – really listening to it with deep concentration and imagination.
We lived at the bottom of a big hill and the water would come spilling down the gutter as broad as a small creek and 10 times more powerful. Our neighbors would leave their gas lights on late into the day, which made it easier to see what direction the rain slanted. I’d sit at the window and watch the leaves turn dark and water drip on exposed roots, dot by dot, coloring the dirt in. Then, I’d eventually give up on the scenery eventually lose myself in whatever weather was depicted in the book I was reading.
Tonight, as I fade off to sleep in warm blankets, my thoughts will be on those sleepy, lazy days when I had nothing better to do than read or listen to someone else’s lyrics purely for pleasure, long before it ever occured to me that mine were inferior by comparison.
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Tags: Rain
Last night, a storm blew in as predicted, but still with a sudden power that sent us scrambling to take hanging baskets, flag poles and other breakables down from the porches. In less than a minute, the picnic table was flipped omn its side and the saplings – and even more mature trees – were bending at the half-way point and about to snap.
This sudden flourish paralleled another recent explosion in my freelance career. An article I was supposed to write for Urban Times fell through last week, leaving me with an average-sized historic piece to write. I scheduled a few interviews and was crusing along when an unexpected assignment from a local arts-focused magazine, called Review, came through. Than, after accepting that piece, another Urban Times article was floated my way. Now, I’m back to my usual monthly alottment of three pieces.
Funny how it happens that way. When I thought I was in for a slow down, it tuns out I can actually expand my portfolio a tad. I’m trying not to think about all the work – the words – now. I’ll find them. After all, there’s a paycheck in it for me. It’s a lot easier to be ready for a downpour when you can afford a decent rain slicker.
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Tags: Rain, Review, Urban Times
2:30 A.M.
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
Silent lightning common to the high plains in the summer fills the northern sky with reptetive, strobe-like flashes. Without the usual threatening soundtrack, the storm is beautiful but restrained, as if the jagged bolts were caged or holding back for another early morning.
I find this private show waiting for me after raising the curtains to investigate. About 2:15, the activity in the window caught my attention. Something outside was so brilliant and seemed so close, I had to check. What I thought might be a police car stopped up the block with its emergency lights on turned out to be lighting strikes shocking the living room with sudden light.
The storm is maybe 20 miles off and harmless where I’m standing even if the noise was turned on. These quiet flashes are a natural phenomenon that occur on July and August nights over the farm houses and wheat fields. Here it can be seen just above the treeline and rooftops. Segments of the sky fill with stuttering white light. Then another place in the sky has its turn to flash.
How the dogs know to be frightened is remarkable. Sounds only they can hear apparently has sent them to stirring in the garage. Whatever it was must have drawn me awake, too.
After watching a short time, I decide to go to bed and let the storm run its course. While I sleep, the beauty can dance around the bedposts and I can wake up, late maybe, to a soft rain.
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Tags: Rain
Thunderstorm
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
I saw the lightning flash in the clouds above the dashboard, about 20 miles south on a highway that crosses the Kansas River and rolls past farm fields kept verdant by elebaroate watering systems. We we were cutting a swath between storm fronts. The streets were thick with water but only sprinkles were falling now, and the closer we got to home, the more evident it became that we would miss the most severe weather.
I was afraid for a moment that with the storm dead ahead, we would have to drive straight through high-powered winds and blinding rains. With the fear disappating – when something as potentially threatening as driving through strong Midwest thunderstorms that can transform roads into slippery and unpredictable ice rinks turns out not to be a threat after all – the flashes up ahead became harmless entertainment for us. (more…)
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Tags: Rain
