Shelter From The Storm . . .

Well, I confess, I was in a cemetery again on the evening of Monday, May 25th, just a few weeks back there now, looking for images like this one, fading stories from the First World War. Sepia photos on tombs of men with incredibly thick whiskers and a glint in their eyes; and those four tragic words : " Mort Pour la France " . . . recording these last traces of their memory before the words and photo on the plaque fade away entirely . . .

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Just after taking the above picture I turned around, and realized there was an incredible show taking place in the sky to the west where the sun was going down. The storm system moving in was immense, so big that an airplane was flying around the edge of it, leaving a curved vapor trail . . . It is hard sometimes for a camera to capture the true size and dramatic qualities of some natural events like this, the human eye remains unequaled for taking in the vast scope of Mother Nature's stage shows . . . this photo hardly does it justice . . .

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And the sky just kept getting darker as the towering clouds kept obscuring more and more of the light. I headed for home, while the storm clouds piled up higher and deeper as night fell. Between midnight and one in the morning, there was a god-awful lightning and thunderstorm that kept lighting up the yard like high noon, accompanied by a torrential downpour the likes of which I've never seen here. We had water coming in around the back basement door, which has never happened while we've been in this house. I spent a good part of the night mopping it up. . .

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But I heard a few days later that just a few miles north of us, a large area got blasted with baseball size hailstones that badly damaged cars, destroyed the roofs on houses, and broke skylight windows in children's bedrooms, scaring the bejesus out of children and parents alike... so I guess we got off lucky. The next time I take pictures of clouds like these, I'll know to start looking for shelter from the storm . . . and I'll put the car in the garage !

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