ENOUGH WITH THE SUNSHINE. THANK YOU. IT'S LOVELY.
But sometimes I just want some dramatic clouds. A thunder-boomer. Lightening. Variety.
As I came over the mountain, through the pass, it was dark and rainy. Absolutely stunning. I was in heaven. And there, off to the left, as I was hugging the side of the mountain on the switchback, the arc of a rainbow was in the distance. So I pulled off to enjoy the moment. Sheryl Crow was the CD of the moment, I had a cane sugar root beer in my hand, and a rainbow in front of me. Life was good...very very good. It's good to take a moment and enjoy things like that and I have no problem "pulling off the road for a rainbow moment"...none at all....
As I re-emerged onto the road, the sun also re-emerged a bit...enough to brighten the rainbow...and to enlarge it!...GREAT I thought....this is getting better and better....and then the arc portion turned into a full-blown stem to stern rainbow with TWO ends now...I looked down to the valley and the end on the left appeared to actually be resting on the floor of the valley and I thought to myself, "the people on the ground must be sensing color where they're standing because it appears to be at ground level"....it was that bright and that low to the ground...I'd never seen anything like it..it looked like the trees were orangish and bluish...so I kept looking for a turn-out to get a picture....
The end of the rainbow on the right rested on the mountain side to my right and was also brilliant and also appeared to be extremely low-not high in the sky at all. I had never in my five decades ever seen a rainbow do this. It was still very overcast with shafts of sunlight coming through. At one point, the colors of the rainbow appeared to be on the outside of my car windows and traveling alongside as I drove, as though I was driving through the rainbow. I was approximately 3500 to 4000 feet altitude at this point. I slowed down to keep the effect going. As I passed cars going the opposite direction, I attempted to look into the cars to check the expressions on their faces to see if they were as shocked and reactive as I appeared to be and they just weren't! When I finally reached a safe place to pull over, I threw open the door, grabbed my camera and looked: behind my car was dark grey, in front of me was bright sunlight, and all evidence of the rainbow was completely gone. My heart sank!
I felt a combination of feelings: loss, shock, even fear! I ran around the car looking up and down the mountain and the valley (having no clue what I expected to find) but eventually had to get back into my car. I sat there for another minute or two just to get my bearings right again.
I'll never forget that. I do have photographic evidence that I, indeed, saw a rainbow. Below is the series of photographs I took. You may be able to tell that the rainbow got brighter and brighter with each picture. This is the rainbow that I was enjoying when I initially pulled over to enjoy the root beer and the music. It was after I pulled back onto the road that it got crazy. If anyone has any explanation on what could have possibly happened, I'm open to any and all suggestions. If you prefer to email me, you may do that as well at: katzbox1@gmail.com.
Thanks.
4 comments:
For those commenting....yea....my first inclination after I pulled over the 2nd time and "lost" the rainbow was, "Man! Was this a seizure?" but the wonderful fact that I have a series of photographs gives me some comfort that perhaps it wasn't. On the other hand-that blissed out feeling of sitting there, rootbeer in hand, music, gratitude, joy,....that has all the ingredients of a "debbie seizure"...for lack of a better term....so I don't know....
ask timothy leary.
And Alice...
I am green with envy. It does get a bit more intense as you say.
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