• A small group of 6-7 dolphins swimming in the Ashley River in Charleston, SC; seen from a bridge as I was on my way to work one morning.
Most of the other morning travellers were busy yakking on their cell phones, cramming an Egg McMuffin in their mouths, or pretending they were in a NASCAR event and didn’t see them —or had seen similar a zillion times— so I was sure it was meant for my eyes alone. To a guy from land-locked central Texas it was a magical sight.
• The Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo, Texas at sunset. Those six rusty, graffiti-covered Cadillacs all sticking up out of the ground at the same angle and lancing into that pink, orange and purple West Texas sunset that stretched on forever…wow.
• My wife in her wedding dress walking toward me on her father’s arm looking like a fairytale princess.
• My son seconds after he was born, bright pink and still coated with that white-ish post birth goo, looking up at me with terrified eyes and shreiking like he’d just seen some Lovecraftian horror.
• The aftermath of Hurricane Wilma on our Fort Lauderdale, FL neighborhood. When the storm had passed I walked outside to see what damage my first-ever hurricane had wrought. I was stunned into silence by the destruction.
There were more trees uprooted and/or snapped and broken than there were left standing. Cars had been shoved around like the toys of some angry giant child. Several trees had fallen into and on top of parked cars (our downstairs neighbor’s Buick was one of the unlucky tree/auto hybrids). Dozens of the sheet metal carports at our apartment complex had been shredded and mangled by the wind and were scattered around like huge strips of aluminum foil. Shredded mini blinds hung out of hundreds of broken windows. You couldn’t walk more than three feet without encountering some sort of debris.
• A car wreck happening right in front of me.
I was right behind a little old lady in a green minivan stopped at the light where Wilson crosses S. 1st. The light changed, and the little old lady starts across the intersection. KERRR-BLAM! A car (later found to be driven my a drunk college kid) comes screaming down S. 1st at about 50mph, runs the red light and slams into the rear driver’s side of the little old lady’s minivan. The green minivan spins around TWICE —at one point going up on two wheels— as it crosses the street at an angle and crashes into the side of a locksmith’s shop. The drunk’s car smashes into a lightpole on the other side of the street. Miraculously, no one is seriously hurt, although the little old lady has a nasty gash on her forehead that splashes blood across her windshield.
The entire incident —the sudden, huge release of violent energy— only took about 5 seconds. I started to say, “Holy shit!” but only got to, “Holy sh…” and then it was over.
• A space shuttle launch. I’ve seen it twice; both times it was accidental. Once my family and I were on the highway and saw an incredible bright streak of fire and smoke off to the east. It didn’t dawn on us for a half hour that it was the shuttle launching. A few months later we were working on the front lawn and saw the same comet-like streak in the sky.
• Denver, CO early in the morning. I was coming into the city for the first time, and could see of the city lights out in front of me and the Rocky Mountains off to the west being hit with first hint of sunrise.
• A storm far out over the Atlantic ocean, seen from Key West, FL. Huge puffballs of purple-black clouds lit from inside by lightning, and reflected in the dark mirror of the ocean.
