"It was a dark and stormy night...."

Remember when the Peanuts cartoon strip would have Snoopy sitting on top of his dog house typing his novel that always began, "It was a dark and stormy night...."? I lived it tonight.

It's after midnight and I just got in after driving from the Fishersville area of Augusta County to my home in the western end of the county through one of the worst thunderstorms I've driven in for a while. When I left Fishersville, it was extremely blustery and lightning was streaking across the sky with rolling thunder.

In the mountains the thunder always rolls because it bounces from mountain to mountain....

I hit the interstate and the wind picked up, buffeting my vehicle which made it difficult to steer ... while the lightning continued. What a light show! Zigs and zags, going horizontally and vertically ... the lightning lit up the sky. Some of the bolts lit up the entire area for a split second, almost as if a giant flashbulb had gone off.

The rain started, first a little, and then building up until it was driving in sheets across the roadway ... wave after wave of rain which caused difficulty seeing through overworked windshield wipers.

By the time I turned onto the rural road heading to my home, the storm was in full fury with small limbs and leaves blowing across the road surface. In the big curve, two limbs were down partially blocking my lane but I made my way around them and continued on in the pouring rain, buffeting wind (weather reports said 50 mph winds accompanied the storm out my way), and electrifying lightning with huge booms of thunder.

I was so glad to finally be home on this "dark and stormy night"....