Another Summer Shower

Oh my what a big thundershower we just had! A classic of midsummer, heavy and deep, of a second’s drenching, with those frightening cracks of thunder that come right with the flash. I was out when it arrived, watching the darkening skies from inside the greengrocer’s with excitement and trepidation, wondering if I hoped to beat it to my car or to get caught. Caught I was, deliriously, running awkwardly in my sandals, splashing through the new puddles of rain, still hot from the overheated atmosphere.

I was lucky enough to make it home in time to catch the best of it from my front porch, challenging myself not to flinch at each newest, loudest burst of light and sound. Little rivers poured out of yards and onto the steaming asphalt of the street, and finally, after a few entrancing minutes, it broke up as it always does in a few rays of sunlight dodging the last, fitful squalls. Is it just me, or do these summer storms always end with a final crash of thunder after the rain has gone and the sun has returned, always the loudest, the closest, a last laugh from the sky?

Our Summer here in the northeast has been hotter and more humid than usual, making me remember previous seasons in the Midwest, particularly Cincinnati, where the late afternoon or evening flurry of atmospheric rumblings and maybe rain was an almost daily event, as predictable as sunset. But memories are so unreliable.  All of these musings, Cincinnati storms, the last gasps of thunder, the breaking rays of sun, are the products of my highly subjective mind and its accompanying bank of memories. Who knows what really happened, and where it all fits into the grand scheme?  

It is what it is, and perception is reality, except when it isn’t.