The first day of spring was ushered in by an awful thunderstorm here in Chicago. I was awakened groggily from a Nyquil and Z-Pack induced sleep around two in the morning. Parallel ribbons of light flickered across the walls of my bedroom in the shape of the blinds. I glared at the traitorous drapery like the disappointment it was. You had one job! I lumbered to the windows and ineptly fumbled for the string of the blinds, my unadjusted eyes squinting from the megawatt shutters of lightning. When I was in undergrad, I took a weather course as a gen ed credit that turned out to be gobs and gobs of math. I remembered that there are two kinds of cloud-to-ground lightning; positive (+CG) and negative (-CG). -CG lightning is the kind with lots of branches and often has multiple pulses of light, like aftershocks. They are called return strokes and I think of them as nature's strobe light. I flipped the slats of the blinds into place and numbly plodded back to bed, where my cat Boots seemed to be watching my soporific antics intently. I pulled the covers up and sleepily mumbled to him; "It's just negative cloud-to-ground lightning. Go back to sleep." And we did.
4 Comments
3/20/2017 09:35:49 pm
This made me chuckle. I'm sure I've said equally odd things to pets over the years, but none come to mind at the moment!
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Natalie
3/21/2017 12:43:25 pm
I love how you yelled at your curtains. I feel the same way!
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Lindsey
3/21/2017 06:27:20 pm
☺☺😻😻
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Michelle Strezo
3/21/2017 07:56:48 pm
Robyn, you are such a good writer! I was so mad at that storm! My house actually shook luckily all the young people, including the pup, made their way to my bed before that happened!
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AUTHORReese: Elementary Music Teacher in Chicagoland. Clarinetist and Trumpeter.
I'm writing a Slice of Life every day for the month of March as part of the Slice of Life Challenge. See more at TWO WRITING TEACHERS. MY FAVORITE POSTS |