My Beautiful World - Day 4

Today we had intermittent rain showers on and off all day. It seemed like some kind of "tropical" weather. I don' t know if it was attributable to T. S. Fay or not. Whatever caused it, the storm messed up my normal Saturday routine, but it had its compensations.

The sky was cloudy at our house this morning but it looked clear toward the east. We decided to hope for a decent sea breeze to hold off the rain and headed toward the beach for our regular Saturday morning rambling. The clouds followed us, growing darker and more ominous by the minute. The sky to the northwest looked very threatening by the time we got to the beach parking area. We decided to cancel the long walks, but we thought we had enough time before the storm broke to walk down to the water for a few minutes. There was always the chance it would veer off to the north or the seabreeze would hold it off.

Neither of those things happened, but I am still glad we ventured out onto the beach. I love to watch storms approach anywhere anytime, but it's especially cool at the beach with all the wide open spaces.

When we arrived, the storm was bearing down on us from the north-northwest. The sky over the ocean was still mostly blue and the shallow water near the jetty was clear and green like the beaches in Jamaica. There were a lot of surfers, swimmers and waders in the water. The lifeguards were lounging in the towers, and not clearing the beach, so at least I wasn't worried about lightning. (Much.)

I turned my back to the water for a minute and was caught up short by the beauty of the approaching storm. The purplish-black clouds boiled high like enormous moving mountains. The curtain of rain beneath made it appear almost as though the cloud extended all the way to the ground. The storm pushed a fresh breeze in front of it that felt good on my face. Soon the breeze brought the first huge rain drops, and almost immediately thereafter it was as though the portals of Heaven opened and the angels started tossing out buckets of water. It was soft, warm water... but huge quantities.

We headed for the car. DH took off running, but I walked. For one thing, I was pretty wet after the first deluge hit, so I thought I might as well enjoy the shower. Secondly, my flip-flops are totally bald on the bottom and, therefore, extremely slippery on wet surfaces. I was afraid to put them on to cross the boardwalk. I don't like to walk on the wooden walkways bare-foot but I decided I'd rather deal with a splinter in my foot than to fall and risk breaking something. I proceeded gingerly nonetheless.

By the time I got to the car, I was soaked totally to the skin. My poor choices in clothing was all too obvious. A white blouse with a nude bra and light khaki pants with pink undies are poor choices if you're going to get drenched. My glasses steamed up and I could not get them to clear because I was so wet and steaming.

I would not say this if there had been lightning in that storm (I'm very scared of lightning at the beach), but I think the experience was totally worth the minor inconvenience. I missed my walk and I got drenched, but I had the blessed opportunity to stand in the sunshine in front of a crystal sea and watch a storm approach in all its glory and grandure.

The fact that it broke right over my head was merely an inconvenience.

The whole experience was a beautiful thing!