Immense.

Ok, I freely admit I have a major lust for big thunderstorms. And I got every bit of enjoyment out of this one that I could. These, I should say. There was a *huge* HUGE line of storms that came through here today. Spanning several counties, a big end parentheses line of bright crimson-intensity storms.

It was amazing. The wind was "hurricane force", reaching up to 88 mph as reported by WGN. The big trees in the park next to us were bowing down to the sheer power of the wind. The lightning was AMAZING, bright purples and blues. We actually saw a strike, as it turns out. When it hit the house (just a short walk from here-not even a block away), the bolt turned flat out pink. We lost power for about an hour and the neighbors had been crowded under our carport.

When I went to pick up my mom, downed trees and emergency vehicles were out in force.

It went away for a while, cleared up and seemed to be the end. But somewhere around 9, the air got that charge again. The smaller end parentheses shaped line of storms that I'd seen on the radar was headed our way. I fully admit my glee here, though the strike so close to home had been scary. More lightning than rain this time. I decided, after talking to someone who fully understands my love of storms, to take my camera out. My feeble point and shoot. And I pointed and shot. And got incredibly soaked in the rain. 177 photos later, I got *close*. I got the wisp of the incredibly bright bolt that backlit the tree out front of the apartment.

This is another reason I love thunderstorms. While I would have loved an even more clear picture of the amazing things I was seeing...it's wild. It's unchained. It's power beyond what you can even imagine. In the blink of an eye. And it's scary, but it's this amazing current of energy. I swear you can smell the electricity in the air when a storm like that is brewing. It's immense. It can obliterate entire towns and do it in seconds, and then clear to a beautiful rainbow a few seconds later. There is NOTHING like that.

It's the same as my obsession with mountains. I love these beautiful, immense things that make the world so incredible. I love the feeling of being swept up in the storms and just captured by it all. It gets in every part of you. Soaking rain, the way the lightning illuminates everything for a split second and vanishes..the way the thunder reverberates in everything around you...the wind taking your breath away... it's amazing. It's totally. perfect.

And if you don't *see* that when you look at something like that, I feel sorry for you.