astronauts taking photos

[asakiyume]

A student said one of the best things in class today. People were sharing stories they'd been told when they were young, and she recalled being at her grandparents' house during a thunderstorm. It was dark--no power--and it was thundering and the lightning was flashing, and all the kids were scared, and her grandfather said about the lightning, "Don't be scared--it's just the astronauts taking pictures."

The lightning flashes were the flashes from the astronauts' cameras.

Isn't that the best?

Comments

[pameladean]

So much more comforting than giants playing bowls.

P.

[asakiyume]

Yeah! And I like the idea of astronauts as kind of celestial beings, just hanging out up there.

[gwynnega]

That is great.

[asakiyume]

I loved it so much.

[cmcmck]

Love it!

My gran always said that thunder was the elephants moving house! :o)

[asakiyume]

Oh I love that too! So fun.

[kore]

Aww!

[asakiyume]

:-)

[queenoftheskies]

That's wonderful.

[asakiyume]

I was charmed!

[missroserose]

That is completely delightful. <3

Once, during a monsoon in Arizona, Brian and I were having an afternoon nap when lightning struck not far from our window. I was sort of half-awake when it happened, and the split-second when it touched down was ethereal and strange indeed—electric in the old-timey sense, as if everything in the world was suddenly exposed. (In retrospect, I completely get now why cartoons have that trope of the character being hit by lightning and turning into an X-ray of themselves.) Between that and the sheer concussive force of the sound, it was surprisingly violent, but just as surprisingly brief, leaving us blinking and wondering what had just happened until our brains could unscramble enough to put it together.

[asakiyume]

What a wonderful and powerful experience!

I was once in a house that got struck by lightning at night. We didn't realize in the moment what had happened--there'd been a big boom, but we thought it was just a huge thunderclap. The only immediate evidence was a nightlight that was blown out, all black where it was plugged in, and smoke curling from it. We walked around searching for other signs of strangeness, very spooked.

The next day we saw that the house's chimney had been shattered and bricks hurled into the next-door neighbors' yards.

[missroserose]

Whoa—spooky indeed. Lightning is so strangely specific!

Our building was hit by lightning shortly after we moved to Chicago, although we didn't notice at the time; our building here is several units and thus much bigger than the house in Arizona, and also has lightning suppression measures, so we were mostly isolated from the effects. It wasn't until Brian realized that the current had blown out the circuitry in our router and firewall and that was why the Internet had gone out that we put it together, haha.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Wow, that gave me the shivers. Good thing it happened at night when less likely to hurt people with flying masonry.

[asakiyume]

You know, I hadn't even thought of that. I'm retroactively extra grateful!

[zyzyly]

Lol yes!

[asakiyume]

So charming :-)

[amaebi]

Wow! :)

[asakiyume]

Fun :-)

[minoanmiss]

AWWWWW!

[asakiyume]

Right??

[nattalie]

very creative answer!!!!!

[asakiyume]

I thought so too!

[sovay]

"Don't be scared--it's just the astronauts taking pictures."

That is great!

[asakiyume]

I think what was especially charming to me was the incorporation of a modern phenomenon (astronauts) into a long-standing explanation pattern. I've heard various versions of bowling or furniture moving, but astronauts? And photography?