A Rainbow Morning

This is a photo of one of my rose bushes this morning with the beautiful raindrops. At 3:45am I was awakened by the dog next door barking his head off. He's normally a quiet pooch, but he was definitely upset. Between his barks, I heard several eerie sounds. One, the yipping of a pack of coyotes cornering some prey. The other, the distant roll of thunder. "Thunder is no big deal" my Nor'Easter family might say, but for SoCal desert Rats, it is a welcome sound. The lightning can be frightening as it tends to touch off wildfires.

Well, I suppose every place has its jewels and it's thorns. Personally, I'd rather brave the wildfires than get buried in a blizzard. Must be my firey nature.

I counted the seconds between lightning and thunder and the storm seemed to be 5 or so miles out.

I stepped outside and breathed in that unique scent of ozone spark in the air. I felt the rumble of the thunder in my belly and I felt very peaceful at that moment. I was thinking forward a little bit to this weekend when I'll be in New England at the Equinox and it will feel quite different.
Then the rain started and I tried to remember what might be laying out in the yard that might have an aversion to being rained on. No small feat at 4:00am, but I managed to stumble out to the garage and find a tarp in my sleepy haze with no glasses on. I covered a few tools that are sitting in the yard and went back to bed. I left the slider open so that I could hear the rain and feel the humid breeze.

Then the morning struck, I was late getting up for my doctors appointment and the traffic was exceptionally awful. When I got to the office, the doctor wasn't even in and neither was his receptionist. So, everyone in the waiting room (about 5 of us) remarked about the weather. It's such a big deal to Californians when it rains. It makes for conversation for hours. One can discuss the multitudes of accidents they pass on a rainy morning. It rains and people lose their minds. That's when we all discover that our tires are way too bald. Thank the gods it doesn't snow here. No one would survive winter.

On my way out of my appointment, I saw a beautiful rainbow. I didn't have my camera, though. So I missed that shot. The traffic was heavy approaching our exit off the Freeway and as I came upon it, my exit was completely blocked! A big rig (tractor trailer for everyone NOT living in California) was laying across the ramp. Sometimes I wonder how they do that? I'd rather not learn about it first-hand.

~~Mama