satu lagi

This is the week of near death experiences.
But this time it was my fault, more or less.
I like to blame it on Yohanes though.
He had the brilliant idea that I should take pictures of the rain.
Because here, quite literally, when it rains, it pours.
And pours and pours and pours.
Then suddenly stops.
It is a sight to behold.

It rained yesterday.
To say it stormed violently would be more accurate.
The wind blew the candles off my kitchen table.
It threw my laundry off the line and into rivers of water flowing behind my house.
The rain came down so heavily I could hardly see across my front yard.
The palm trees behind my house looked like video footage of a hurricane in Florida.
The lightning flashed brilliantly and the thunder absolutely roared.
Had this storm occured in the States, it likely would have been accompanied by a tornado.
So I went outside to take pictures.
Now, I know better than to stand in the middle of the yard during a storm.
I mean, my camera would get wet!
So I stood on the sidewalk in front of my house, under the eaves.
At one point, I squatted down to take a picture of water drops in a puddle.
I was looking through the viewfinder, trying to focus the picture just so....
All of a sudden, there was a flash of light so bright it hurt my eyes - like looking into the sun.
Before I had time to even wonder why my camera had flashed without me pushing the button, there came an instantaneous clap of thunder, so close and so loud that it knocked me backwards and made my ears ring.
Lightning had struck the ground.
About 5 meters to my right.

I really wish I had a picture of it.