Rainbow Connection (What the Hell Just Happened)

This is a true story. It is a true story, and it is my story, and it began not more than fifteen minutes ago.

I was lying around in my room, reading this week's Uptown and minding my own business, just killing time before I head out to the Grand Analog show in a couple hours. (We've been over this. Go see it.) I was reading through their Folk Festival articles -- which were published yesterday, so that's good; mine will only be a couple days behind theirs -- and the pictures included reminded me how nice the weather had been for that whole weekend.

It had threatened to rain a couple of times during the weekend; it had threatened to rain hard, too, which tornado-dodging Manitobans did not want to hear again. But it never actually did rain save for a couple brief spits, and the entire weekend was gorgeous.

I don't know why I thought of rainbows right after that. The internal workings of human consciousness are mysteries to us all, don't you know; some loose association leapt up in my mind from the thoughts of sunshine and festivals and goodwill towards all man, so I had the mental picture of a rainbow for a few seconds before it flitted away again.

Now, here's the thing -- when rainbows came unsummoned to the forefront of my thoughts, I had the window open and the weather outside was nice. Partly cloudly out, nothing blocking the sun, a lovely July evening outside.

That was before I thought anything about a rainbow. Then, within two minutes -- I'm not kidding you here, two minutes later:



WHAT

WHAT THE

ACKPTH CLOSE WINDOW



Out of nowhere and with no preamble, the tail of a hurricane materialized from thin air and began battering the neighbourhood. I'm not exaggerating when I say that, either; I used to live in the northeast parts of Nova Scotia, and hurricanes went there to die on a strangely regular basis.

I mean, this was fierce. The rain was going almost sideways, and I had to feel badly for any housepets that happened to be wandering outside at the time. Since my camera was three feet away, I figured what the hell and took a few shots.



Strangest thing, I tell you. A butterfly fluttered its wings somewhere in Australia, or something. I don't know. There was no readily reasonable explanation for this and I wasn't even about to attempt one.



This mysterious tempest only lasted for a few minutes, then disappeared as quickly as it had arrived; aside from a much wetter neighbourhood and puddles on the streets, nothing much seemed different from the way it had been moments earlier. Partly cloudly out, nothing blocking the sun, a lovely July evening outside.

I decided it was safe to open the window again, turned my head to reach for the clasp, and--



--and holy crap I have just accidentally summoned a rainbow into being with my mind.



Okay, no, that's impossible. (And completely self-centered, you rightfully point out.) This is of course a set of mischevious meteorological coincidences, and I am losing my mind.

But I can safely say, with all certainty, that never before in my life have I thought of rainbows out of nowhere for no reason and then seen a rainbow show up within the next five minutes. I hope you'll forgive me if it struck me as odd.

And now, as I'm writing this, it's gone as if it never came; it's partly cloudy out, there's nothing blocking the sun, and it's a lovely July evening outside.

Nice weather we're having!