Lightning in September.....

Ok, that was VERY trippy last night. After I got off the computer I stood outside for at least a half hour, closer to 45 minutes before I got cold enough to go inside (and besides, I had to go potty too, and get something for a very late dinner). The storm never DID come any closer to me, I believe it was down towards Salcha, maybe even closer to Delta than that.

(A small "geography" lesson, if you follow the highway south-east out of Fairbanks you'll first drive past Ft. WeinWright Army Post, then through North Pole, next comes Moose creek (a church & a half-a-dozen houses along Moose creek), the Eielson AFB, after that you go through/past Salcha (very little of it sits along the highway), after Salcha comes the lakes (Harding, Birch, and Quartz Lakes, all in a line) out in the hills, then finally you "arrive" at Delta Junction.)

Anyway, this thunderstorm started around 10 pm (best guess). I went out to watch at 10:30, figuring the storm wouldn't last too long. Around 11:10 I came in and started getting myself some food. At 11:20, DD called from her best friend's house saying "mommy, you've gotta come outside, come out & look at the sky." She didn't realized I'd already been out & watching for more than a half-hour. Turns out she & her best friend, best friend's older sis, their Mom, and a friend of their mom's were all standing out behind the best-friend's house (also known as my next-door-neighbour's enourmous side yard), watching the storm. BF's Mom was pretty worried that the storm might be moving our way, as she had a good portion of this weekend's yard-sale already arranged on the front lawn. I assured her that it seemed to be moving in a purely North-South direction and was far enough to the East that we wouldn't get more than an incredible light-show out of it.

At one point the older sister mentioned that it looked like bombs exploding and lighting up the clouds, and I kinda had to shiver just at that thought. I'm currently reading _Alas, Babylon_ by Pat Frank, and it involves a small town in Florida situated not too far outside of Orlando surviving a nuclear bomb attack against the US, and how the citizens of that small town cope & try to survive & maintain some decent quality of life in the aftermath of such a horrible war, with a almost complete lack of news from the world outside their town, and no supplies coming in from outside. And to top that, the direction of the lightning-storm is also the direction Eielson AFB is in...... So, without too much of a strain, one COULD imagine that it was ammunitions fire from Eielson lighting up the clouds instead of lightning. I pointed out to the oldest daughter, though, that you could actually SEE some of the lightning strikes starting in the clouds & stretching to the earth, and ammunitions fire doesn't act like that, to the best of my knowledge.

Also rather interesting is that the storm stayed only along the horizon for us, above the level of the clouds was clear sky with a quarter waning moon & stars popping out. And to our backs was the Aurora Borealis. So, we had moon & stars, a lightning storm AND the Aurora, all at once, on the evening of the first of September. *shaking head* I keep saying that it felt trippy, but that's the only word right now that succinctly describes the sensation. No other words were coming to mind.

It was kind of funny, as the Mom & I were standing there chatting about how weird this all was, the girls & the Mom's friend were playing tag in the yard. I was reminded of playing "Bloody Murder" (a tag-game played in the dark) a couple of times as a young kid in South Dakota. The hoots & shreeks & hollering that the girls were doing as they were slipping & running in the dew-soaked grass at midnight on an autumnal friday night......

And ironically, DD woke up yesterday feeling cruddy with a cold. (Maybe I posted about that, I don't recall.) Anyway, just a typical cold, but one I was hoping to avoid this year. Well, last night as I was heading back to my house and BF's Mom was starting to drag the girls inside, DD commented that yeah, she was ready to go in as her feet were freezing cold & soaking wet. She'd been out all that time in BARE FEET!!!!! With a cold!!!!! *shaking head* I was sure I was going to find her absolutely miserable this morning. Wouldn't you know it, though..... She sounds BETTER! A bit stuffy, but no real congestion & certainly not as miserable as she was sounding yesterday morning. *shaking head* Flies in the face of all the threats of "you'll catch your death of cold" I recall hearing from my Mom-Mom (my paternal grandmother) as a child if I dared go outside at night without a jacket or such. LOL I think our ancestors had it wrong (in great part) all along..... A hearty child will only be made stronger by some good cool fresh air & exercise. Not that I'm going to send her out every night like that deliberately. Nor would I if it was other than a simple head-cold. But last night's romping in barefeet through dewy grass in the chill-night air certainly didn't seem to hurt my child.

Oh, and when I went to bed finally at 1 am this morning, you could STILL see lightning flashes every couple of minutes. So, that storm lasted at LEAST 3 hours. *shaking head* Just very, very wierd!

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I did get to the Farmer's Market again this morning. Bought a quarter each of Rhubarb cake and Very Berry cake from Honey Bakery, as well as a bag of her garlic rolls. *drool* They smell delicious!

Checked back with the other lady about her chokecherry jam, and she said she's got a bunch of it at home ready to jar up, but she didn't have any ready to bring in this morning. So I'll just have to go AGAIN next week!!!!! *BWG*

I also got an ENORMOUS bunch of Swiss Chard. I hope it holds till Monday, because that's when DH is supposed to be home from this hunting trip (moose or no moose).

Then I went to Gulliver's Used Books & found a couple of books for DD and I. Mine's Phyllis Curott's _Book of Shadows_. DD's book is a _Hawaiian Flowers Cut Out Paper Dolls_ book. She'd seen one almost identical at the grocery store with 2 little dolls representing Alaskan Native tribes and some of the various costumes from each of the tribes. So, when I saw this Hawaiian one (completely un-cut or torn or messed-with), I had to buy it for her. Maybe I'll pick up the Alaskan one as one of her Christmas gifts. Both books cost me $9.90.

After Gulliver's I headed to Fred Meyers to pick up a couple of things I forgot during my regular grocery shopping last night. I also needed some canning lids, as I'm going to attempt to make Crab-apple jelly with some crab-apples from Dad's place. I'm picking the crab-apples tomorrow, and hopefully I'll get the jelly made on Monday. I'm only going to do a handfull of jars of the stuff, to see how I like it. I don't know what I'm going to do, though, if I DO like it, as Dad's most definitely going to be moving next summer (he's got his retirement date set at Nov. 31).

I think that about covers it.

Have a Blessed Day!