I’m up early and step out onto my porch to check the weather and see if the neighborhood cat is out and about and wants to come in for a bit. I see that it’s rained, and there was some wind overnight because blossom petals from a tree nextdoor are scattered all over my porch. It is pleasantly warm.

Then one of the more impressive flashes of lightning I’ve ever seen streaks across the sky. Not sky to ground but cloud to cloud spreading out and covering half the sky above me. I’ve seen this sort of thing before but never that expansive and right over me. Seconds later a blast of thunder tears through the sky, then decays into a slow growling rumble that goes on and on.

I give it the applause it’s due, thinking maybe I wait a while before taking my morning walk.