Just Walkin in the Rain

One of the bad things about Kim's eye disease is the loss of income through all the time missed from work over the years. But there are many good things, such as being able to spend more time together, particularly hiking and biking. Also about once a year, we get caught in the rain in the middle of a hike, either because we didn't check the forecast ahead of time, or because I felt we had enough time to beat a rain that was forecast for "later." Put those two things together, and you have today.

Since Kathryn was working and Kelly had softball, we decided to go out to Texas Roadhouse and then a hike on the towpath afterwards. As we were driving north to where we would be hiking, I should have taken the hint at the fact that the cars coming in the opposite direction all had their headlights on. But when we got to the parking lot, it appeared the rain was still well to the north. This did not last.

I knew our turn around place was a little less than 2 miles from where we started. As we walked, the first drops began to fall. I made the comment that it would probably start getting heavy just as we got to the turnaround, the farthest point away from the car. These are the only types of situations where I tend to be a true prophet. Apparently we now had to see it through for the proof.

As we were heading back, and the rain was getting heavier, I again correctly prophesied that the rain would let up about the time we got back to the car.

We often tend to see those little thumb-nail sized toads when we're hiking. But apparently, when the big rains come, it's the big frog-sized toads that like to come out. We saw several hopping across the towpath, and Kim managed to step on one that she didn't see. Leave it to the blind woman.

At any rate, we made it back none the worse for wear. There was an interesting incident on the way home. Coming down route 8 about a mile from Steels Corner Road, we suddenly had to brake, because two of the three lanes of traffic seemed to be stopped. After stopping, I realized that this was nothing more than Blossom concert traffic. This was like twenty minutes before the concert was due to begin, and traffic was backed up onto route 8 for three-quarters of a mile. So we knew that the traffic on Steels Corner would be bumper to bumper for the three miles to Blossom. As we passed by we could see the traffic waiting to get off of northbound route 8 was backed up quite a ways as well. When you throw in the three major cross streets that would also contain traffic wanting to get there, I couldn't even begin to imagine how long it would be before these poor people would get to their seats. Or to their hunk of lawn. One can feel even more sorry for the people who have lawn tickets. I mean, even if the rain stops, the lawn will be soaked.

Oh well, there was no particular reason to tell that part of the story. I could have said that it gives me sort of a perverse pleasure to see such a thing happen to people going to a hard rock concert. But that would be truly jaded, wouldn't it?