Monday, June 28, 2010

Life, explained (7)

Saturday, the day before yesterday, started out as many Saturdays do, with me preparing for my early-morning trips to the grocery stores.

We frequent several stores, and I usually shop at two each Saturday. It was three this time. It's all about which store has sales on items we need, and which stores we know have particular produce we are seeking.

As I came out of the first store, a new chain which just opened in Denver, I saw a sight not seen in Denver: a rainbow at 6:30 in the morning. Since the great majority of our rainfall comes from afternoon storms and we otherwise have so little cloudy weather, it's unusual for the conditions needed to birth a rainbow to happen early in the morning. In fact, I cannot recall seeing a morning rainbow so soon after sunrise.

Since I did not have my camera with me, I hustled home to get this photo before the rainbow was gone.

The day itself was fairly typical, other than the USA playing in a World Cup knockout round game--we don't usually get that far, and it showed. I watched some of the game, and I did what I usually do on the weekends, getting chores done and goofing off.

As early evening arrived, so did a storm. It was not violent, just a gentle rain which lasted half an hour, and then the sun broke through. I was sitting at the dining room table when I looked out the window to the east. Dark clouds. I could also see the sunshine lighting up the back yard from the west, and I knew! I grabbed the camera and got outside quickly to get this shot.

I didn't do a great job of panning the camera so as to create stitchable pieces for a panorama, but that's not what matters. If you get past the amateurish photography and dive into the scene, you can be where I was in that moment, enjoying it with a great big grin on my face. The rainbow was a stunner, with the main bow intensely colored and the second rainbow fully visible from one end to the other.

The bookends of my Saturday, these ethereal markers were.

Life is funny. It offers up such moments as these, and we can decide to pause and note them or to just glance up and move on. I considered enjoying the early-morning rainbow by standing in that grocery-store parking lot until it faded, but I'm glad I decided, instead, to leap into the car and hurry home so I could capture it. I'm relieved, in retrospect, that no traffic cop saw me in my mad dash. Can you imagine explaining my speeding to some grizzled veteran policeman?

"Yes, officer, I realize I was exceeding the speed limit. You see, I was hurrying home to get some pictures of that rainbow."

He could have told that story in the precinct house for weeks.

But it was not a day for funny stories or unusual human events. No, it was a day for Nature to show off silently and beautifully in the early-morning light, the evening sun, and in my mind's eye.

It was a mundane Saturday. I loved every minute, and I really loved the day's bookends.

2 comments:

Lynilu said...

Rick, all I can say is that I get it, rainbows are worth the risk of a visit from Officer Unfriendly! I'm a rainbow freak! and, bad splicing or not, that double rainbow is awesome!

Rick Hamrick said...

Yes, that double rainbow was the best one I think I have ever seen.

Thanks, Lynilu!