264- THUNDERSTORMS....THUNDER BUMPERS!.....

a) Spring and summer thunderstorms, since kidhood, have scared me something fierce...until recent years. This evening a powerful rainfall, threatening with darkening skies at dusk before letting loose, poured straight down with a steady pace. The recently planted hanging flowers on the porch were pulled in a bit and seemed to really enjoy the refreshing indirect rainfall. All of the leaves were given a steady dousing, along with the blooming flowers. As soon as flowers are expended, they are clipped to stimulate more later and most of the summer season. The rainfall this evening, without much thundering and bumping, reassured me that storms can be enjoyable in a more friendly way.

b) Another earlier blog describes being caught, trout fishing up in the North River gorge of the Shenandoah Valley, in the middle of the mountains, taking refuge on the porch of a cabin on the the side of the mountain at a Scout Camp.
To get a feel for being in the center of a summer thunderstorm, another time, this guy waited out the storm in a picnic shelter in a country park. The pounding sounds and splashing visual sights totally surrounded me as I sat on a bench (in the middle) jotting down thoughts and images fresh for my memnory bank. They were recorded on paper and in that memory bank for use one day in the next novel and newspaper essay....
I label the experience as an ADVENTURE! An earlier blog describes the importance of ADVENTURES! in your life. They always add a splash of natural vanilla extract or smidgeon of nutmeg to your otherwise normal life!

c) Ahhhh...remember the smells after a rainfall?

d) Maybe...when was the last time you, after the summer rain, tossed adulthood thinking aside and waded through puddles? We are so....primed to forget or toss aside some of the neat, simpler playing in life. Thank something inside a "kid forever" that allows a neat person to wade in a puddle...swing so high that they think they can go all of the way around in a circle....and, ever so carefully and slowly, eat a doughnut around the intact circle inside, leaving the hole's inner ring! C'mon....try it once...again.

e)