ThunderBoomer

Does anyone else love thunder? It was powerful last night, as an raging June storm moved through. I opened the window a crack to listen, but that was hardly necessary. We had some boomers so loud that the whole house vibrated. Ben, my smart border collie, has enough intelligence to be fearful, and I sat down and comforted him. Maggie my girl border rarely shows fear of any kind, and I had to stop her from going out into the backyard when I opened the sliding glass door to look at the hail.

This storm reminded me of the most intense one I have witnessed, which happened to be while I was backpacking. At the end of the day I sat up my tent a few hundred yards below timberline, and just as I was thinking about cooking dinner it started to rain. I first tried to wait it out, hoping the storm would pass. An hour and a half later I decided to cook anyway, and set up my stove in the shadow from a tall fir. I was intent on keeping the flame going long enough to heat my rice and tomato soup dinner, and after a while noticed my dogs were missing. It was hailing by this time, with lightning and thunder every few seconds. I wondered what the heck happened to my dogs.

Well I found they had taken shelter beneath the thick branches of a massive spruce, to be out of the hail. I on the other hand was out in the weather, trying to cook dinner and getting bopped on the head by hailstones, which made me wonder about their intelligence compared to mine.

Thunderstorms are great for showing the violent side of nature, and can make one feel so darn alive. Twelve hours later, you often get a glimpse of her calm and serene side, and the morning sun warms the rain soaked landscape, causing lazy mist to rise with the new day warmth.