Thor's Visit

I was sound asleep this morning, with Lovey on my left shoulder and Nedi on my stomach.  My sleeping companions awoke me by literally "digging out" at a dead run to hide under the bed.  I have no idea what gave them the warning, but, as I awakened, there was a tremendous flash of bright white light and a simultaneous crashing roar.  I thought that either (a) a building had exploded, or (b) a meteor had crashed in Carpenter Park.  I was amazed at the silence that followed - one person in my apartment building yelled in surprise, but I was waiting for sirens to immediately begin.  Dead silence.    After a few minutes, the cats came creeping back into the bed.  I kept lying there, staring at the window.  I had grabbed my alarm clock and looked at the time when the first blast had frightened me - it was 1:06 a.m.  Six minutes later there was another bright flash, but there was a slight pause before the booming noise.  Both kits again went under the bed.  I got up and peeked out the window - snow was falling, and there was a third flash of lightning followed by a more distant boom of thunder.  Thunder snow!  The front was moving very fast over the area, and within ten minutes, one could only faintly hear the thunder rumbling out to the east.  It was amazing.  I certainly felt that we poor mortals had been visited by Thor, and that I had heard and seen the lightning and thunder of his great hammer, Mjolnir...

Photo Miscellany

Clydesdale foal

Female barred owl in flight

A statue of Thor, circa 900, from Iceland

Fall full moon over Washington, D. C.

Mother's love - a cougar cuddles one of her four kits