so yesterday was nice, warm: unseasonably so, temperature records having been broken for the last few days. it made me nervous about climate change, the same way all the trees dying in the summer did. but my taste for that taste of spring sensation wouldn't allow me to not enjoy it, so i took a ride with my sister, bought some books, saw some of those roadside temperature readouts along the way. 72 degrees at one point. 72.

the same impulse that wouldn't let me not enjoy the day also led me outside as it started to get dark. patty was calling out that the sky looked "scary," like a thunderstorm was coming. it was darkening considerably, the same way it would under those circumstances, the brightness still visible from the other side of the house. i thought about those days long gone, sitting at the front door with julie when we were young and watching bursts of rain and thunder on the street outside while scott sat on the porch across the street doing the same. so many times it seemed we had been down by the playground and patty got the notion that it was going to rain soon, and she'd drive us back to the house just in time and we'd take up spots by the glass of the front door and watch the storm. so many summer days passed that way.

as it happened yesterday i watched the cloud formations and tried to remember bits of what i'd actually learned in weather and climate, but my aesthetic sense took over and i could only pay attention to the dark grey puffs and the way they contrasted with the bright house next door. i felt the first drops and slowly retreated inside as the wind picked up and it began to grow colder.