At least I was sort of awake when the thunder and lightning started.

Twenty years out from when I was regularly in Virginia and I'm no longer used to thunder and lightning. I do kind of miss them, the big, dramatic storms; I missed them even in Eugene, the first place I lived post-Virginia. I was there four years and I think I saw lightning five times, if that. Yes, I kept track.

My corner of Northwest Oregon tends not to get them. Thunderstorms get hung up in the Cascades and usually don't wind up in the valley where I live; sometimes I see thunderheads piled up on the eastern horizon like somehow-threatening cotton, and I can imagine the drama happening near them. Experience. Just not recent experience. Until early this morning.

And it wasn't that much thunder and lightning in my city. Not Poltergeist-level thunder and lightning. Not the near-tropical depression-level storms we'd get in Virginia Beach. Just a touch of sky drama. Usually Portland needs fireworks for that.

Wait. Fireworks in a thunderstorm. Could that be done? And would that be awesome? (I AM NOT ENCOURAGING THIS. THAT'S A BAD IDEA.)