Droughtbow

The ancient Greek mathematicians considered 28 a perfect number because if you add up all the smaller positive whole numbers that divide 28, you get back that number. Behold the easy confirmation: 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28.

I bring that up not because I’m fond of number theory—which I am—but because for much of September 28 we had wispy clouds over Austin that turned the sky into a perfect spectacle. No rain-bringers these, but they did produce what I’m tempted to call a droughtbow above my Great Hills neighborhood that noon. Behold that too:

A droughtbow; click to enlarge.

And if you want to imagine that the droughtbow was the foreshadowing (foreclouding?) of a rainbow, or at least of bowless rain, you may, because at around 5:10 in the morning on October 9, yesterday, I was awakened by the sounds of thunder and of the first downpour we’ve had here in months. Maybe the remaining fall wildflowers will also wake up and make up for lost time.

© 2011 Steven Schwartzman