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Thursday, July 27th, 2006
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6:02p - Amidst the Purring of the Heavens
The air is prickly and dancing with anticipation. Aye, there's a storm going on. It's been storming for the last few hours, truth be told, but I'm trapped in the computer centre with no protection from the rain, and so I may as well stay here. I wouldn't use the computers at home, but I'm fairly certain the techies here have things set up to prevent power surges, so I should be okay. It's not as if there is anything else to do in this empty annexe. It's too bright to watch for lightning, although the thunder is making its presence well-enough known. It's the prickly feeling in the air that is the most pressing, and sets something deep within me at unease.
A storm both ferocious and feline
It stormed last night as well. Holly & I were half-sleeping in the living room with the PS2 on, when Holly asked if there was a storm. I'd commented on the heavy skies a few hours earlier in Staines, and so I went to check. There was a flash and a droning sound, but it sounded more like an aeroplane, and so I dismissed the flash as that of a plane coming in to Heathrow in low cloud. By the third flash, we were running out into the garden to bring in the washing before the rain, and only just made it (but I forgot my black woolen trousers, invisible in the darkness, and they're still hanging there during this thunderstorm...). Off went the PS2, and soon enough we were at Holly's window watching the unusually-spectacular lightning.
As the storm passed overhead, we moved to the other side of the house amidst crashing thunder like a herd of drumkits thrown down a spiral staircase. The lightning decided to put on even more of a show, and the local cats (more about them later) dived under cars for shelter as rain hammered down under claws of an electric kind scratching holes in the clouds. Storms could be cats, and by the volume of the purring, they'd be enjoying it. At one point, a thick, vivid pillar of electric power speared down to the ground just over half-a-mile to the South West. We wondered what had been struck. Most of the dancing spark sprites skipped their way across the sky, whilst the streets below, bathed in their sodium blanket, could only look on in an eerie silence. I love a good storm.
Oh, there was some lightning. Ah, it's so wet...I may be in this building for some time yet...
Horizon's Lightning
The storm last night was odd, however. It gradually faded away to the South West, to the extent that soon we wouldn't see even a small flash of lightning for at least three or four minutes. So we were ready to call it a night, when I noticed the flashes suddenly seemed more frequent. We returned to the window, and for the next 45 minutes, watched a bizarre spectacle on the Western and North-Western horizons. There was a storm, either a different one or the same one having undergone a substantial directional shift. It was violent, and very bright, but we could never see the bolts themselves, just the glow on the surrounding clouds. We had no idea where this storm came from, why it was sitting in one place, or why we were seeing cloudglows and shadows as we did. Most puzzling. After that started to die down a bit, we gave in, and made the mistake of turning the light on. Remarkable, how well we adapt to the dark after a prolongued period of it...
The Heat is On...Off...On...etc
At the moment, it's quite cool and breezy. It was last night too, to an extent. Indeed, we had a brief storm around 5AM a few days ago, when the air cooled, but in each case, it returned to hot stickiness. This morning wasn't quite as hot, but it was still enough to trick me into walking onto campus in a T-shirt whilst leaving my trousers on the line. I suspect weather has a sense of humour. It will be a relief to escape the heat, however. I've carefully avoided sunstroking again (although not cat-stroking), but it's still been unpleasant. I grew a little heatrashed yesterday on our outing to Staines, especially whilst waiting for the bus on Egham Hill with no shade or no drink. I've never been so glad to have Irn-Bru.
Staines Shopping and Bus-Mania!
We bought a frying pan, a working wallclock and half-price kitchen lovelies such as fudge and luxury coffee. I looked for job-vacancies, found precious few, and handed a CV into HMV without much hope of getting anywhere. We consired buying Makai Kingdom, and decided we didn't need it yet, and we waited for the bus home for an hour. When it finally came, the driver was a short-tempered fellow who swore at the car in front that refused to pull out, so that when it did, the bus driver drove us quickly round the corner...otherwise known as Pooley Green level crossing, where the barriers were already going down for a train. Oh, bus-mania! At least it stops 100m from our front-door...and at the other end, Heathrow Airport.
Undernetworked
Now that was more like it, lightning! My skin is tingling now. I'd be loving this static in the air, if I were back at Hazel House. Not that we have internet at Hazel yet, so I wouldn't be updating this...and the lack of internet is annoying, from a jobfinding and researching viewpoint. It's easier to avoid procrastination when you have the internet on tap, and don't have to make special trips for it, where you'll find yourself quickly distracted by LJ, BBC News and Wikipedia, where I've even set up an account now ('Zverzia', if you're interested).
The BBC News site is asking for photographs along the theme of 'Shelter'. How I wish I had my camera on me now! Oh well...at least it's peaceful...
EDIT 1936: No, it isn't. Lackaday, that was like an explosion outside the window! Bright flash, and almost instant bang to almost make me fall out of my seat...alors! *slowly regains normal heatbeat*
current mood:  prickled
current music: Phantom Brave Soundtrack - Snowberry (3 comments |comment on this)
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