Sun Dogs

It might be hard to see-- focus on the puffy, Volkswagen-shaped cloud in the center of the shot-- and look just above. The colors didn't come through at all from this shot I took with a cheap disposable camera. But I wanted to try to capture the illusive creature a fellow traveler was calling a "sun dog." It's supposedly even rarer to see than a traditional rainbow, as they appear on sunny days rather than during storms. I spotted this one several weeks ago on a day-trip around Ohio. I've been lucky to see a number of beautiful rainbows in my life, but the unexpected treat of spotting a rainbow on an already sunny day caught me off gaurd.

Nine years ago this week, I found myself driving back solo from Texas, tail between by legs and hungry for a friendly face. I had moved to Houston 6 short months earlier, looking for a new start. All I had found was heat, a job market so competitive that I couldn't even get an interview for a part time job because I lacked a bachelor's degree, and raw cracked hands from washing my laundry in the bathtub to save money. After running out of gas on an 8-lane road (as I left my 8-hour per week-to-start retail job) and making a dusty 2-mile hike (wearing black in July-- DUH), I made up my mind to pack up my toys and go home. Home to West Virginia where I could live inexpensively with my mom, finish my half completed degree, and try to re-root myself.

In 48 hours I quit my job, packed my worldly goods into my un-airconditioned Cavalier and headed east. On day two, as I traveled somewhere in Kentucky, a particularly fierce thunderstorm moved through and settled ominously along the horizon ahead. I knew that I was most of the way home, and yet with every mile I was feeling worse about my decision to "give up" and go back to WV. "Great," I thought, "Now I've got a freakin' hurricane dead ahead of me."

But instead of drowning me, the rain was considerate enough to contain itself to the westbound traffic only. My lane was barely wet, while the wipers of the on-coming cars were flailing wildly. By chance I looked out my passenger-side window to see if I had become a latter day Moses, or if the fields on the right were dry as well. It was then that I saw my first triple rainbow. Three distinct bands of ROYGBIV hung in the sky, and I wished frantically that I hadn't packed my 35-mm at the bottom of my belongings when I made my escape. I consoled myself by pulling over into the sorrel that lined the road and spent a glorious 5 minutes basking.