2001:05:28:00:52
The lightning had been striking off into the Southern distance for quite some time before the first drops of rain fell from the sky. But once they began, the menacing sky flooded with sunlight to my right, streaming at odd, electric orange angles through cracks in the layered clouds of sunset. And in the cobalt sky to my left was the most perfect rainbow, completely unobstructed. The familiar parabola of a childhood drawing.
 
And then later, after the sun slipped below the horizon, the sky was the most unusual shade of lavender. A color I'm sure I've never seen before in nature. I was singing along with the Cure's "Pictures of You" and when my car passed a clearing on my right, oranges and pinks combined with the distant lavender and the melancholy lyrics to make me tremble and swallow hard. And then burst into tears.