weather thoughts

[redbird]

We had a fine early-spring thunderstorm last night, loud and bright and close.

The thunderstorm was an odd sort of comfort--because while the lightning was flashing and the thunder clapping, nothing large and loud was flying low overhead. When the first band of storm passed, and there were more low-flying craft, I wished out loud for more thunderstorm, and was glad when I got it.

I miss the days when my reaction to low-flying airplanes was no more than annoyance at the sound and realizing that the wind had shifted and we were on the takeoff or landing path for one of the local airports.

And yes, I know those planes are probably up there to keep me safe. But in the same way that I can't explain to the cat that the lightning isn't going to hurt her because she's inside a nice solid building with lightning rods, the nervous primate hasn't quite put together that the sounds she's hearing aren't enemies about to drop death out of the sky, they're her own tribe protecting her from that. They would sound the same, until they hit: a jet engine is a jet engine, and all the news is of war and bombs and missiles.

Comments

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Here, in my relatively quiet corner of south-east England, I notice unusual plane activity ... i.e. practically any plane activity is unusual except the RAF doing handbrake turns, or sometimes, at night, when they stack Heathrow or Gatwick planes over us. Which is a sound I associate now with the night of 9/11, when I lay in bed for hours, listening to them. And sometimes I hear light planes flying out at around 3 a.m. I often wonder where they're going. And I always keep a mental note now, just in case it becomes important later. I wish i didn't feel obliged to do that.