Stormy

I find it splendid that, mere days before the summer solstice, we have had such a prolonged and vigorous rainstorm. It lasted much of the day yesterday, and most of the night just over. Not a trace of moon or star was to be seen, and not a whiff of the sodden jasmine floated on the chilly air. The cricket by the front porch let out an occasional chirp, but the predominant sounds of the night were the pattering drops and the nervous winds which came and went, shaking the mulberry leaves and making the pines moan. It was delightful, despite the absence of thunder and lightning. And the best part is that it could last for two more days! It isn't unheard of to have a storm this late in the season, but I've never known one that brought such cold air, nor one that lasted more than an evening. It feels downright Oregonian!

While we get delightful rain, Southern California gets more than 600 little earthquakes in the last week. I'll bet it's hot, too.

For Friday Internets entertainment, here is something unearthed by scottobear: EphemeraNow, featuring a large collection of mid-twentieth century advertisements, especially of cars, plus home decor, kitchen products and such, and nice collection of period photos. See the slick, glittering surface of the Eisenhower years, just as it would have wanted to be remembered! But I never knew anyone who had a room like this. Presumably, such rooms did exist. Advertising executives probably had them in their rambling houses in Connecticut.

Many of the cars in the ads I do remember seeing when I was a kid, though. I remember the guys from East L.A. and El Monte chopping them down, painting them with intense colors that Detroit had never imagined, and making them jump about on custom suspension systems, and all this only a few years after they had rolled sedately off the assembly lines and into the suburban garages of Alhambra and Arcadia. The result of my experience is that the low-rider cars looked less strange to me than do the improbable behemoths posed in perfect settings for these mid-century ads. Though I once beheld the like of this, I now can scarcely credit my memory, and a photograph of a dragon would be but slightly more unsettling.

Coolness

The tumbled clouds developed some thin spots this afternoon, allowing the sun to brighten the wet landscape for a while. Birds arrived to forage, the pavement glistened, and there was even a brief sun shower. I can't believe our good fortune. Most years, the only damp June brings is that of sweat rolling down my forehead, and the landscape has begun to take on the disheveled look which results from aridity. This year, everything still looks a fresh as it did in April. Our latest water bill was almost twenty dollars lower than it usually is this time of year, simply because we've had to do so little irrigation. So far, I love 2005.

Evening has arrived, and the clouds are thickening again, though there are still a few patches of blue, surrounded by silver, white and gray billows shot through with the light of the vanished sun. Directly above, an area of white clouds drifting amid a gray fog which admits just a little blue has created that phenomenon (which must have a name, though I don't know it) of blurriness that makes you feel as though you are unable to focus your eyes. I don't look at it for long, because it is quite uncomfortable, however fascinating it might be. The day remained cool throughout, and the air of dusk is brisk, promising another bracing, chilly night. The crickets are still silent. I will listen for the return of rain.