Rainbow alert
Last night (Saturday, September 8, 2012) about 5:30 a fairly strong rainbow appeared behind my house.
I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture. Usually I’m so inclined, but a recent event has changed me.
My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, and I’m devastated and heartbroken.
Conditions have to be right to generate rainbows.
The sun has to be low in the sky with rain in the opposite direction.
That is, a low sun has to be shining through rain.
If the sky is fully clouded with rain-clouds, no sun.
The sky has to be partly cloudy with one of those clouds releasing rain.
And the sun has to be near the horizon, with that rain-cloud on the opposite horizon.
When I drove bus for Regional Transit I was probably the only bus-driver to give rainbow-reports.
“Rainbow on the left,” I’d yell.
Everyone went to the left side of my bus to look out the left-side windows.
My bus would tilt to the left until the air-bellows on that side pumped up to offset the weight-shift.
Our buses were air-suspension. The air-bellows at each wheel pumped up to offset weight-sag.
If one corner had more weight than another, that bellows would pump up to make the bus ride level.
Offset was not immediate. It took perhaps 30 seconds for the system to stabilize.
I was working the rush-hours, when the sun would be low in the sky.
I remember one specific rainbow-report.
It was in the morning, and I was driving a Park-and-Ride in from out in the sticks.
I noticed a rainbow to the left in the distance.
I made a rainbow-report, and all my passengers shifted to the left.
The rainbow was far away, so I don’t think anyone saw it.
Most of my Transit rainbow-reports were in late afternoon.
I’ve seen quite a few rainbows east of our house.
I (we) have been here over 20 years.
Sometimes I’d drag the neighbors out, but they both died (over 90).
And now my wife has died, so I’m no longer what I was.
• “Regional Transit” equals Regional Transit Service, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and its environs, where I drove transit-bus for 16&1/2 years (1977-1993). My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that. I retired on medical-disability.
I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture. Usually I’m so inclined, but a recent event has changed me.
My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, and I’m devastated and heartbroken.
Conditions have to be right to generate rainbows.
The sun has to be low in the sky with rain in the opposite direction.
That is, a low sun has to be shining through rain.
If the sky is fully clouded with rain-clouds, no sun.
The sky has to be partly cloudy with one of those clouds releasing rain.
And the sun has to be near the horizon, with that rain-cloud on the opposite horizon.
When I drove bus for Regional Transit I was probably the only bus-driver to give rainbow-reports.
“Rainbow on the left,” I’d yell.
Everyone went to the left side of my bus to look out the left-side windows.
My bus would tilt to the left until the air-bellows on that side pumped up to offset the weight-shift.
Our buses were air-suspension. The air-bellows at each wheel pumped up to offset weight-sag.
If one corner had more weight than another, that bellows would pump up to make the bus ride level.
Offset was not immediate. It took perhaps 30 seconds for the system to stabilize.
I was working the rush-hours, when the sun would be low in the sky.
I remember one specific rainbow-report.
It was in the morning, and I was driving a Park-and-Ride in from out in the sticks.
I noticed a rainbow to the left in the distance.
I made a rainbow-report, and all my passengers shifted to the left.
The rainbow was far away, so I don’t think anyone saw it.
Most of my Transit rainbow-reports were in late afternoon.
I’ve seen quite a few rainbows east of our house.
I (we) have been here over 20 years.
Sometimes I’d drag the neighbors out, but they both died (over 90).
And now my wife has died, so I’m no longer what I was.
• “Regional Transit” equals Regional Transit Service, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and its environs, where I drove transit-bus for 16&1/2 years (1977-1993). My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that. I retired on medical-disability.
posted by BobbaLew at 5:51 PM
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