Familiar lightning....

This is the part of August when the really spectacular thunderstorms happen along the Gulf.

I don't mean the kind that arrive around dinnertime and bring torrential downpours that flood the backyard and make it impossible to drive anywhere until they're over.

I mean the kind that roll in slowly right around dusk and bring practically no rain with them at all. They make for fantastic light shows as the full darkness of the evening descends and the massive thunderheads are backlit by the various lightning bursts.

The air is sultry and heavy at night, but not as unpleasantly humid as it sometimes can be. And I can curl up on my couch and peer out my westward facing windows and watch the clouds light up again and again. It's amazing and beautiful and, unlike some of the fiercer rain-driven storms, it is not at all scary.

Now that I've been here for a little over a year, I can fully appreciate the nights that are like this. Last summer, trying to move and get settled, and adapt to the climate in the first place meant that I wasn't as observant of the different types of storms. They all just blurred together and overwhelmed. This year, I have been able to take more time to see the differences and enjoy the dazzling quality of these quieter tempests.

There is almost something comfortingly familiar about these storms.

On my way home from work Tuesday night, I stopped at the supermarket for just a few items.

The parking lot of this particular Publix overlooks Sarasota Bay, and a terrific example of this kind of lightning was illuminating the sky looking out towards Lido Key, beyond which lies the Gulf itself.

I paused to watch and enjoy it before entering the store. When I went in I heard, but did not at first consciously register, the song playing on the in store sound system.

All I felt was a jolt of warmth and comfort that ran instantaneously through me and I sensed it had to do with the song. But I had to really force my conscious brain to understand why my body was responding so joyfully to the music. It was one of those moments where instinct was ahead of cognition.

The song, Dear Valentine, was by my favorite band, Guster.

The thing is, you hardly ever hear Guster on mainstream radio. They have been increasing in popularity recently (whoo-hoo!!), but still, I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard them on the radio in the past four years. I'm so used to listening to their CDs in my car that it always takes me pleasantly by surprise when I hear them in a public place.

It, too, is familiar lightning....a shock to the system...electric in every sense of the word....

~~~

Though it wasn't the song I heard in the store, Guster does have a song actually called "Lightning Rod." I'll close with just a few lines from it and a link to a studio performance of it. Enjoy!!

"...Standing on a building
I am a lightning rod
And all these clouds are so familiar
Descending from the mountain tops
The gods are threatening
But I will return an honest soldier
Home..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q5o4A5b2HE