Thursday Thirteen

1. We had a storm today.

2. I stood in the doorway a long time, smelling the rain and watching it fall.

3. We have been short of rainfall this year, and I swear I could hear the ground sucking up the water as it fell.

4. I thought I could see the grass grow, too.

5. I have always liked storms.

6. As a child, I sat on the carport of my grandmother's house and watched the storms play on the mountain. Twin streaks of lightning would fly overhead. I would try to count the bolts.

7. Thunder did not seem as ominous as it does now.

8. I don't know if that is age or if storms truly have changed.

9. Thunder seems to rumble more now, and groan longer.

10. My mother used to tell me thunder was the angels at the bowling alley.

11. Lightning struck my parents' house in 1989 and set it on fire.

12. It burned almost to the ground.

13. That's a longer story for another time.