I need a better camera. This was the best picture I could get with my current Kodak camera of a bird (? hawk) sitting in our tree in the back yard. Even the close-up pictures were not good.

I was sitting in the living room this morning, with the dogs, in the dark because we were in the midst of having a thunder-and-lightning storm. It was about 8 a.m. and as far as I knew, Paul was out on the ocean lobstering! I hate that! I hate him being out on the water in a lightning storm. It makes me crazy. But when I saw this bird perched in our tree, I just had to record it for him. He loves wild birds and whenever he sees an odd one, he brings my attention to it immediately. He would have loved to have seen this one.

Anyway, back to the storm. I turned off everything I could - lights, TV, cable, fans, air-conditioning units - the whole works because I've always been deathly afraid of lightning storms.

My grandmother used to tell me the story of how, when she was a young mother sitting in her kitchen and making toast, there was a lightning storm going on outside and all of a sudden, a lightning bolt came thru the wall, out the electric receptacle, and came right out thru her toaster and shot across the room right in front of her eyes. It didn't get her, but it was too close for comfort. Ever since I heard that story (which she never failed to tell me every time we had a lightning storm) I've been afraid of lightning. I've been known to crawl in amongst all the stuff in the coat closet to get away from the lighting. Or sit on the cellar stairs where I can't see any windows until the darn thing is over.

Today, all I could think of was Paul, out there on the water - a sitting duck for a lightning bolt. His mother had warned me before we married that I was letting myself in for some very worrisome times - being married to a lobsterman. They go out fishing in all kinds of weather, especially her son, and she was right.

Finally, after I got a few (albeit crappy) shots of the bird in the tree, the dogs and I settled down to wait out the lightning and thunder. The rain came. The wind picked up. It was all very worrying to me.

Finally, when all the hoopla died down a bit, I could breathe easier.

The phone rang and broke the silence and startled the three of us.

I said, "Hello?"

The phone said (in a deep booming voice I did not recognize at all), "THIS IS GOD!" and then.... "I GOT HIM!"

The hairs on the back of my neck all stood to attention!

Then the voice crackled a little and was laughing hysterically. Of course it was Paul on his cellphone, which he heardly EVER uses at all, and he told me he was OK.

Whew.

I thanked him for calling and putting my mind at ease (of course since that time the storm has circled around and has come back!)

Then I asked him how he was doing, and he said that it was touch-and-go for a moment there. The lightning/thunder came so close that it "scared the seagulls right off the boat!"

I didn't need to hear that part!

So, to take my mind off this whole drama, I'm telling you the tale. I wish he were home. I wish it with all my heart and soul.

Not only do I hate being in a lightning storm, but it's so much worse when I know my dear husband is out in a little lobster boat (all alone probably because what other lobestermen in their right mind would be out fishing in this weather?) and not knowing what is happening to him. I have to grin and bear it. It's all part of being a "fisherwife" as they are called over in England. Part of the job.


FISHERWIVES IN WHITBY, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND
Photo by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe




FISHING FAMILY - WHITBY, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND
Photo by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe


I have a few other shots of the bird above at Webshots if you care to click on it and peruse that album. If anyone can identify the bird for me, please do. I know the pictures are very bad, and I think I am going to start saving for a better camera, with a good telephoto lens, for instances like this.

Cheers,

Bex