Weather Report

It's really late/early and there's a nice drizzle tippie-toeing 'cross the window pane; it's slightly open. I'm sitting in our studio-room, stool scooted close enough to feel the bits of rain sneaking through the screen.  The air is sweet and damp...alive with memory.

There's an old wooden screen door slamming off stage left. My oldest brother enters, saying something about the weather.  I nod, glance past him through the wire mesh toward a darkening sky.

I am sprawled on the oval braided rug in our livingroom floor, flipping through a teen magazine...pretending not to be eager but knowing there's excitement in the air. You'd think I was expecting one of my teenie bopper heroes to come waltzing off the front page, the way my heart fluttered as I looked up from the current vapid-eyed king. But no. I will only be satisfied with one thing at this moment....something only Mother Nature can offer; something she's been promising all afternoon. 

Brother asks and I let him know the windows and skylight have all been closed. Mom and I had run the course at thunder's first distant rumble; we had it down to a science and could have set some kind of record dodging about the little two storey row house sealing it against the elements.

I feign new interest in my reading and he goes up to his room. I scurry out to the front porch just in time for the storm's first major thunderclap. A great claw of lightening follows, striking somewhere near the railroad tracks. The air smells metalic...electric.... The rain comes....first in a torrent of large drops, striking the yard an pavement with sharp slap; the storm is one of my favorite kinds-a real window rattler!  It lasts long enough for us to loose the lights for a moment, but by suppertime, the lights were back and the storm spent.

We don't get much in the way of thunder and lightening here in San Francisco, usually the worse we get is two little cracks of thunder and a flicker or two of lightening. And even though we didn't have either tonight, the rain was a nice thing to hear....it's soothing and relaxing. 

We took a couple days to fix up the rest of our apartment; Jack's sister came by for a visit. It's great seeing them together and she's such a sweet girl. We'll be back with the music in the next couple days...gotta get some money together for more green paint and wood.  But there's always practice and writing more music! That's were we're at for now...rockin' all the way, come rain or come shine.

So for today, Fifty Five is the New Weather Report....sunny with a chance of dreams come true.

P.S.  The picture is called "Santa Fe Mood," one of my computer graphics. Even though the memory wasn't of Santa Fe, it just seemed like a good picture to put here.  Let me know what you think. Thanks!