Thunder and Lightning
And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.
-- Bible: New Testament Revelation 14:2.
Friday, July 21, 2000
One year ago: Second Crown
The original plan for tonight was for Jack to come down with his daughter H---- and spend the night, then we'd drive up to Bellingham tomorrow morning. But when Jack had the chance to sign us up for a raft trip at eight AM, we decided to head north after the Clarion West party tonight.
Jack suggested that we should meet at the Shalimar restaurant in the University district, since Jim Kling was going to join us for dinner and the party, and we knew he knew where that restaurant was. I arrived first (of course!). It was a very hot, muggy evening. I didn't want to go into the restaurant to wait -- too hot! So I walked across the street and browsed in the used bookstore for a few minutes.
Jack and H---, and Jim, all arrived at the same time. We had a good dinner! I almost always get some lamb dish at this place, since lamb is something I don't usually cook at home. (Ha! when was the last time I cooked myself dinner?) When we were through, we walked up the alley to an espresso place that Jack likes.
As we were sitting and sipping our drinks (I was a bit antsy, since I wanted to get going to the party), I looked out the large windows into the parking lot. "Is that rain?" I asked. It's a rare occurence in a Seattle summer, though we have the reputation of dampness. Then there was a huge clap of thunder! This is even more unusual around here. The storm continued for some few minutes, then blew away -- in the direction we wanted to go. We decided to risk it, anyway.
A stop at the grocery store for our potluck contribution, and we were off. The sky was amazingly dramatic, with big thunderheads shooting lightning at each other. When we stopped for gas, we saw a car that was filled with stuff, with a TV antenna (like for your roof) sticking out the window. I'd have stayed away, thinking the driver was a kook, but Jack got into conversation with him. Turned out he was a volunteer for the emergency broadcast system, and would drive around doing tests. I don't know if the bad weather had anything to do with it, though.
When we got to John Cramer's house, the power was out! (And John Cramer wasn't there, which disappointed Jack.) So we hung out on the deck for a while (I spoke to Vonda, Amy, David, Greg Bear, and a few others), then downstairs on the patio I checked in with Andy Hooper, Victor, Randy, and AP. Most of them have joined the new vanguard-disc list I started a few days ago, so we talked about that, and recent happenings on the trufen mailing list also. There's been some discussion of the list being dominated by a few members, so I've been making an effort to start topics of my own, or following up efforts in that direction made by others. That's the only way to get a list to be what you want -- create the conversations that interest you.
The sky was truly amazing -- there were two beams of light (or shadow?) that started behind the house where we couldn't see, and were converging far to the east. The Cramer house has a grand view anytime, but it was especially gorgeous tonight.
All too soon, we had to leave. It wasn't even dark yet! But we needed to get to my house and pick up my bag. As we drove north, the storm preceded us. The lightning made dramatic leaps across the sky, illuminating the cloud banks. We were tired when we got to Jack's house, and fell asleep very soon.
 |