First Storm

It's pouring as I write this post, and there's lightning, too. The first thunderstorm of the season. It's rained so little this spring that I've almost forgotten the thrill of it,

I think about the thunderstorms of my youth, wind whistling through open windows, the rush to close the ones the rain was pouring through. The delicious feel in the air afterwards. There's chemistry involved, I later learned, something about negative ions and positive mood.

What a cozy way to spend a Sunday morning, nothing expected except figuring out how to get the newspaper, which is outside ... somehow ... into the house.

(Rain is hard to photograph; this is one time I almost captured it. New York City, July 2021.)