We had a massive thunder/lightning storm last night, starting at about 3:30am. It was a fast moving storm,  starting many miles away, just rumbles and small flashes of light in the clouds. But in less than 15 mins it was right overhead, with flares like magnesium flashes (remember high school chemistry lab?) and thunder as loud as a gunshot in the next room.

Sasha, normally as phlegmatic a dog as you can get (4th of July passed her by without a twitch) was seriously worried about all the noise. One thunderbolt had all three of us twitching in reflex — for her it ended as a dive down the stairs and out to the back door. Where she voiced her displeasure. The weather was so loud, I didn’t worry about waking the neighbors, but I didn’t want to encourage her barking at storms so I took steps to distract her.

Another quarter of an hour later and the storm had moved along, leaving behind a muggy texture to the air, flickers of lightning ‘over there’ a ways, and moderate thunder rolling overhead. So I took Ms. S for a walk and that was a great idea. She got to see the lightning and hear the thunder while also seeing me completely calm and unruffled. She ignored the lightning and only looked up at the sky during the thunder.

It was nature’s raw power in a way I had never seen before. Frightening and beautiful, all at once.