Written on a plane
DFW -> RDU August 22 2007 8:55pm ET
We just passed an amazing sight. In the near-dusk above and to the right of our plane, a gathering of several large thunderheads rising out of the broken cloud cover below. Each of them lit up like a lantern every few moments with lightning, and occasionally sending orange-colored bolts to the ground. Really, like a lantern--every charge would light up the whole cloud from inside, the dusky-blue shape of which I could still see in the fading daylight and the rising moonlight. Gosh, it was cool. The plane banked to the left to just skirt the edge of the system, from my seat on the right side (30F, across from the flight attendant station) I had an excellent view of the whole thing as we turned to avoid it and again to resume course. As we slowly (so it seemed, in relation to the massive clouds) moved around the storm, I imagined we were instead underwater, passing giant colonies of coral jutting up from the sea floor. How I really wished I'd not decided to leave my camera at home for this trip. Now, as it has grown dark, patches of light flicker on and off ahead of us, revealing sillhouetted clouds rather than illuminated ones, with the occasional bolt lighting a path through the dark shapes. Sure, the $5 mini-bottle of red wine is helping, but I've never been as stoked to be in an airplane as I am right now.
We just passed an amazing sight. In the near-dusk above and to the right of our plane, a gathering of several large thunderheads rising out of the broken cloud cover below. Each of them lit up like a lantern every few moments with lightning, and occasionally sending orange-colored bolts to the ground. Really, like a lantern--every charge would light up the whole cloud from inside, the dusky-blue shape of which I could still see in the fading daylight and the rising moonlight. Gosh, it was cool. The plane banked to the left to just skirt the edge of the system, from my seat on the right side (30F, across from the flight attendant station) I had an excellent view of the whole thing as we turned to avoid it and again to resume course. As we slowly (so it seemed, in relation to the massive clouds) moved around the storm, I imagined we were instead underwater, passing giant colonies of coral jutting up from the sea floor. How I really wished I'd not decided to leave my camera at home for this trip. Now, as it has grown dark, patches of light flicker on and off ahead of us, revealing sillhouetted clouds rather than illuminated ones, with the occasional bolt lighting a path through the dark shapes. Sure, the $5 mini-bottle of red wine is helping, but I've never been as stoked to be in an airplane as I am right now.
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