Early Morning Storm

My eyes flutter as they open, slowly they open.

I shift to my left trying to take stock of time.

I hazily see the clock and I let out a sleepy grunt.

I want to curse upon seeing it’s only two in the morning.

Then I realized what woke me up.

The bright lights slip through the blinds.

The loud crack and boom follow.

The house shakes with a low vibrating rumble.

The thunder’s so near I feel it within the walls, I feel it on the bed.

It’s not strong; just enough voltage to send a quick chill up the spine.

The rain pounds outside. I force myself up.

Looking outside the window, I see that water is draining well.

It’s not flooding.

Lighting strikes close. It illuminates the darkness outside.

I can see the heavy clouds and the buckets of water cascading.

Lying down on the bed, I grabbed my phone.

I checked the weather and saw 5 alerts.

A couple of flash flood warnings.

One tornado warning and a couple thunderstorm warnings.

I stare at the doppler radar and see the storm represented as a deep red color.

Deep red apparently means heavy rain.

The deep red swirls around the screen and we are right in the middle of it.

I force myself up. I go to the other room and look outside the windows.

It’s not flooding. What a relief. I don’t want to deal with the mess.

Lying down on the bed again, I smile.

I’m actually enjoying this, I think.

It’s exhilarating, the force of nature that’s just outside.

The power of the earth teasing, disturbing this quiet suburban life of ours.

I feel a tingle of excitement at the possibility and occurrence of flood, thunderstorm and tornadoes.

Well, probably not tornadoes. But still, there’s something about a natural onslaught that fascinates me.

This is somewhat similar to the excitement I felt in anticipation of Hurricane Ike.

The rain subsides. The world outside quiets down. The lightning recedes.

My eyes flutter as they close, slowly they close.

I shift to my right trying to forget the time.

I let my weather perversions go as I succumb to sleep’s embrace.