After a long day holed up in the office and a perfectly acceptable afternoon in the classroom, this was my first view of the evening.
That gave way to a little storm, which turned into the lightning cloud that managed to stay just off in the distance. As dusk turned to night the electrons lit up the clouds into eerily serene spectres of yellow. And when all of the light was gone from the sky the lightning stood out in pale white sheets in the far off clouds.
It was a terrific show, a starkly beautiful piece of nature that felt like it lasted forever.
When I finally stopped admiring it and decided I should try to capture this somehow, it was too late. I set up the camera to do a little video, but what I captured was a cloud that had all but exhausted its energy. So there’s not much to see, beyond the dying gasps of a ferocious energy.
So I won’t show it to you. The video isn’t very good, even though I want it to be.
Now I just have to find the right mixture of conditions. A storm off in the distance that I’m continually chasing. Lightning. The proper lighting conditions at just the right time of day. Who knows? All of these things may never happen with me behind them. And there’s the eternal question: will I have the wherewithal to record it if I am there?
Truly it was beautiful. Sometimes, there are things about your commute that are worth remembering.
