Crack, Boom, Bang

Looking out my east-facing window at the sun sparkling on the ocean from Lynn to Swampscott, I was surprised to hear a low rumble of thunder.  I turned to my right to see what was happening and gazed out my south-facing window where the scene was quite different.  Clouds were swirling and threateningly dark, moving so quickly they soon began to cover the sky over the ocean as I turned with the movement toward the east again to see the sky no longer blue, but a churning gray on gray. 

A sudden flash of light, long and sharp, crashed across my view from somewhere high up in the clouds as it pierced my view down into the ocean, blinding me for a moment.  Then the crack, so loud that Howard, our cat, ran at high speed to hide under the couch.  Our visiting neighbor put his hands over his ears and scurried out of the room, but not out of hearing, into the other room, as if he had never heard such a noise before.  Another flash of lightning followed by its crack, boom, and bang forced me to back away from the window as if it were going to get me.

The rains came.  They swirled, blowing every which way by the strong winds, forcing the leaf-filled trees to bend unnaturally toward the parking lot ground.

As suddenly as the storm came, it travelled north beyond my view.  The sun appeared again creating a magnificent rainbow, a perfect arch to the left of my view over the ocean and beyond -- taking with it all the fuss and fury and gave us mortals a taste of the power of nature with its ability to gentle and give us pause.