Earth Image Photography, Nature Photography, My Summer Office

6:24 p.m.-

Sitting dry at home as uninterrupted thunder and lightning jolt outside my door. EZ is panting on her rug, twizzling her nostrils to the cool breezes rushing in through the screens. The Weather Channel radar showed "TEMPORARILY UNVAILABLE" for the first fifteen minutes of the storm (a highly irritating quirk that happens too often when we really need to know what's over the horizon.)

The hottest day of the summer so far. Hundred percent humidity and 92 degrees; hardware shoppers were few and those who came in for lawn chair webbing and deck paint were thrilled to be cooled for a spell by air conditioning, though stridently resentful of us for having life so easy inside.

At 4:15 a lady driving a scooter came in for a key duplication and reported that severe weather was moving in from the northwest, "Go look at the sky."

Oh my. Medium darkness, not building fast or gyrating. More momentous than a quick summer storm.

"Four-inch hail and hundred-mile winds on the way too," she "overheard hearing over at the Citgo."

Early summer rainstorms are like adolescent boys, needing little foreplay to set them popping. They erupt suddenly and, since the experience is fresh, rise and finish quickly. But, by late July, they have learned to take some time and savor the payoff by building slow, giving those in their path some time to make ready for the fun.

Picked up EZ in home's steamy heat and we drove south through town--with the north sky blackness opening its maw behind as though to swallow us--to the college field where there's a wide view of the sky.

The wind rose and blew in new temperatures, which now are at seventy. Back into town--still no rain. Picked out Storytelling at the video store, which Ebert and Roeper said they watched three times each because of liking it so much. Also considered Amalie (a French film subtitled in English) and A Beautiful Mind, which won four Academy awards. One strike against it for that. Strike two is for being produced by Opie who has an unfortunate tendency to uphold Hollywood's sentimental formulas too strictly. John Goodman is a main actor in Storytelling and I'm dubious about what good has come of Roseanne's husband.