Thunderstorms

Growing up in Wyoming and Northern Colorado I am no stranger to thunder and lightning storms. Afternoon thunderstorms were the wonderful reward for enduring scorching hot days at a mile high in elevation. I miss them. The way they cool down the summer day, and the wonderful smells after the fact.

Afternoon thunderstorms are rarely seen in this part of the country. AB and I both still relish them. When we first moved here, and before there was a four story apartment building directly behind us, we would turn off the lights in the bedroom, open the curtains and watch the lightning in bed. Now we crane our necks for a sliver of a view of the sky as it lights up.

This afternoons storm was different though. It was rain, lightning and thunder as usual. But the rain was in walls of grey. You could see the front of the storm, moving towards us in the car. It looked nearly like we were driving into a wall of water... and sounded like it too. Once in the wall the rain would come in sheets, no rain and then a sheet would blow across the car. The lightning started off distant, but within minutes was all around us. Not as in, there's lightning over there and then over there. No, the sky was flashing all around the car it appeared. Nearly blinding at times.

I was driving Leif and I home from daycare and for the first time ever I was nervous in a thunderstorm. Maybe it wasn't really any scarier than any other storm, maybe it was just that I had with me, in my car, my most prized possession, my son. I worried that he would be afraid and get upset (he didn't). He just watched it all as I anxiously got us home.

Once in the house I was much more comfortable and could watch the storm in amazement like I always do. Watch the water pour off the roof in sheets, look (around the buildings) for lightning, and listen to the thunder crack. With each blast of thunder Leif would perk up and say "WOAH!" and then return to whatever he was doing.

When I was about 6 years old I remember one of the worst thunderstorms I was ever in. My best friend, Jennifer, was spending the night and she was horrified. We watched the rain and then we watched the hail that went on and on. When it was all over we went out and collected hail and froze it, we took pictures. I thought it was for posterity... my parents probably took the pictures for insurance (as I realize now). After that storm began a major cleanup which resulted in my parents re-shingling our house and my grandmother's garage (and house?). Cars had hail damage, trees were ripped apart, my mom's flowers ruined. Now that was a storm.

This one wasn't nearly the storm that one was. But it held it's own intrigue and placed just a little panic in my heart.