Always bring me down.
Yes, I know that's not the right lyric. (Maybe you
didn't know...unless you are of a certain age you might not know the Carpenters
and that's a darned shame.)
This month has been an exceedingly strange one.
Hot. Wet. Cold. Clammy. Windy. Rainy.
Soggy. Moist. Damp. Totally unpredictable.
At the start of the month (and how can it almost be over
already?) we had horrible heat and rain. Storms that flooded areas and
brought down trees.
(Yes, we still have the two downed trees that take
out part of our driveway and the street. I've got to call the tree guy
again today. I knew it was going to be a while due to the massive amount
of damage that had gone in the area, but it's been nearly 3 weeks, sigh...)
Last Tuesday when I drove back to PA, I left the office
early. I left early because there had been storm warnings. Warnings
that included tornados in the area. I was hoping that I could perhaps
beat the storm. Spoiler: you can NEVER beat the storm.
As I headed out, the rain started and it was like someone
was throwing buckets of water at me. I worried about my son who was at
work. He drives a sedan (an older one at that) and though he is only 3
miles from home, I was concerned.
Both of us made it home okay. (He went to the house in
NJ and me to the house in PA.) It wasn't the worst drive or storm that
I've ever been through, but it wasn't good. I kept going (SLOWLY) through
the storm. One of the exits about 1/2 way to PA was closed because it was
completely under water. There was a car (a sedan, not unlike my son's)
that was stuck in the middle of it. Just sitting there with the water up
to its doors. (You can see why I was concerned about my son...I'm always
going to worry about my son.) As I kept going, it got better.
(Thank you!)
I didn't take my normal way home because I knew that there
was a tree down on the main road. (It had gone down prior to the rain
coming through...it's been the summer of trees coming down everywhere! I
hear Skytop lost 100!) As I headed under a bridge (which is kind of
tunnel like), it wasn't raining. As I exited it was coming down in
buckets again. It was hard to see in front of me. But there was a pickup
and I just followed it as best I could. (From a distance.)
I eventually did get home. Normally, hubby and I would
have gone out that night to the supermarket. (It's senior savings
day...I'll take being a senior when I can save. Otherwise, I still want
to be a young woman...which I know I am not.) Both of us decided that
despite the fact that the rain had let up that it wouldn't be a good idea
because we had no idea what the roads might be like. Flooding and
obstacles were likely, so we passed. (There were actually two tornados in
NJ that day...not far from where I was driving. I am so thankful that I
wasn't part of that!)
Moving along to Monday of this week. After working
remotely, I decided to head back to NJ to try and beat the storm. Again,
you know how this is going to turn out right??? As soon as I decided I
was going to go, the skies opened and the first 10-20 miles were a white-knuckle
nightmare. Then I finally did out drive it. (Or I veered one way
and it went another.)
But then my cell stopped working. No music. No
navigation. No idea what was going on. I rebooted, thinking the
issue was my phone. No change. It wasn't until I got home (after
stopping at the supermarket to get dinner for my son and myself) that my
husband was able to "call" me using our Alexa device and tell me that
T-Mobile had an outage. (Well at least it wasn't my phone.) Service
came back a short time later. I was able to bring all my things inside,
take the laundry in that my son had done, start dinner and put out the recyclables
without any rain. There was a lot of thunder/lightening, but I don't know
if our area actually got any rain that night.
Tuesday...more storm warnings. I had to drop off my
car to get an oil and filter change. (Love that even though
"my" place doesn't open till 8, there's usually someone there an hour
or so before so that I can drop off and catch the bus and then get off the bus
at night and pick up my car.) Amazingly, my bus was just going by as I
stepped out of the building, and I was able to hop right on and get to work.
Once again, while at work we had warnings about bad
weather. Once again we were able to leave early. Got on the city
subway and tried to time it so that I wouldn't have to wait for the bus for
long. (That rarely works.) It was pouring once I got to the bus
stop. But I managed to (sort of) stay dry until the bus arrived 8 minutes
later.
All was going well until we reached the "change"
point. This particular bus (and I knew this from experience) always stops
at a certain time and exchanges drivers. It was really pouring and the
replacement was nowhere in sight. Prior to this the garage had called to
make sure that I was coming to pick up my car that afternoon. At that
point I said I'd be there in 20 minutes or so. But I didn't know that the
driver swap was going to take that amount of time. (It usually
doesn't.) We sat there and sat there waiting. And it poured.
And poured. AND POURED.
Nearly 20 minutes later a new driver did show up. By
now streets were flooding and the rain was coming down in torrents. I'm
worrying about how my son is going to get home. (Again.)
By the time we got to my stop, it wasn't raining too hard (but
it was still raining), but everything was flooded. Stepping off the bus
onto the sidewalk was stepping into ankle keep water. As I walked
(slogged?) up the street to get to wear the garage is, cars in the far lane
were still splashing me. (Splashing is putting it mildly). I had
difficult time trying to find a place to cross the street because the road was
literally a river. After standing on the side of the road, I finally saw
a break in traffic and went for it. My shoes and pants were drenched.
That's when I noticed that most of the lights at the
business were off. There was one tech working. They had closed down
early due to the weather and flooding. He called the owner, who told him
to give me my keys, and we would deal with my bill later. (THANK
YOU! This is why supporting local business can help you.)
I drove the 1/2-mile home and didn't even bother with the
umbrella. I was already drenched and a complete mess. (The Ring
camera video proves this...not that it needs proving.) I was a mess and a
river was now running down my back yard. Water had come in through open
windows. Ugh...that's the only word that truly describes everything.
By the time my son left work about an hour later, the rain
had stopped. I was still concerned about his driving with flooding He
didn't encounter any, but what he did encounter was incredible traffic because
other roads were flooded and closed. His three-mile drive took over 40
minutes. Welcome to adulthood kid...you may not yet be 21 but you have
experienced the true rite of passage: dealing with awful and frustrating
traffic.
Here I am today. I'm back in the office. My son
has to go to work too. And guess what? They are predicting more
possible storms. I'm not ready to deal with that again. I'm sure my
son is not ready to deal with it again. But what are you going to
do? You can't change the weather. (No matter what some people might
think...we can't do it!) I'm hoping to head back to PA later this
evening. (My son actually wants to have dinner with me tonight. I guess
he really IS an adult.) Fingers crossed that it will be a boring drive
because I think we've all had enough weather-related adventures this
July.
Please August, be better! (Or at least be more
moderate?)
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