1st Big Summer Thunderstorm- and it ain't summer yet!

Last night around 10 the storm started. Beautiful flashes of color and roaring thunder followed by enthusiastic rain. In the downtown square here, people whooped and yelled for Thor as the rain brought relief from the record-setting heat (it was in the 90s in New England). The wind whipped the trees into a cheerleading frenzy. And then the power went out. Which was okay for overnight. I opened the windows in a futile attempt to air the place out and settled down with a book and flashlight. The lot went quiet and downtown, for just a bit, went back a century, to a time before electricity. The church bells rang in midnight.

Then I woke up to the sound of the garbage trucks changing the dumpsters at 6, and the power still was out. So I got the emergency wind-up radio and listened to our local dj tell how most of the area was out. Trees went down, poles snapped, roads and schools closed. So far no reports of injury or intense destruction. It seems okay for most in town now; even West Bratt is back. The AC is on, though it's still 86 in my apartment. But I gots power, so life is good.

Still, it's weird to have what was a real August-high summer thunderstorm in May.