Monday, August 10, 2009

altocumular standing lenticularis


"One interesting thing about lenticular clouds is that they look like they are perfectly stationary and frozen in time. You may also hear these clouds called altocumular standing lenticularis. They form when a current of moist air is forced upwards as it travels over a mountain, causing the moisture to condense and form a cloud. Sometimes the air is forced into a wave pattern, generating what is known as a wave cloud. Wave clouds can look like strings of discs spreading out from the leeward side of the mountain. They can also form miniature waves which sometimes look exactly like a choppy sea."
--Wisegeek.com

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I was lying on my back tonight on the lawn of an amphitheater in the middle of farm country. Ferris Wheels and Zipper rides lit up the night sky. The long-haired, chain-smoking head banger crowd hummed with energy. I was barefoot with my boys, waiting for the show to start. Little white clouds hovered above the grassy slope where I lay, probably on the site of an old dairy farm. There was once a Dairy Princess competition in a town near here and the county fair still has a Dairy Women's milkshake booth. There was a Prune Queen too, but that's another story.

So I'm watching people eat nachos and fries and rock out and make out and the grass feels good on my toes and it's great to be jumping up and down to the beat with my kids, but I'm suddenly overcome with wanderlust. I'm wanting the burn of a hot sun. I want arid. I desire bleached bones. Stones. Mud. My toes are aching for cracked earth. My body wants to leave the rolling hills and head straight for the middle of a dust devil.

I'll be there soon -- the Alvord Desert, which is why my feet are itching. And the clouds have my heart longing. I dreamed about this place way back when.....and by some miracle I'll actually be there soon. For real. Just as I imagined, in the bitter cold of winter, under those claustrophobic clouds.
Alvord photo:

1 comment:

BadAssKona said...

Yes, soon my love. And we will scour the earth for treasure and chase the dust devils and climb to the sun and feel life as it should be felt.

(password - "hypie") Def.: An advertising executive with a pony tail