Nobody told me there'd be days like these.....

John Lennon~ Nobody Told Me

Oy! Today has been a bit bizarre.... it started out with low rumbling thunder, but then it built up to BIG BOOMING THUNDER. We don't get much of that in the Pacific Northwest, so it's quite a 

rarity. After attending the Quaker Friends Meeting today, by the time we left, it was a open 

skies downpour. I offered to swing by my son's place, let him get his bike and Uniform, have 

lunch @ our house & drive him to work

I rode my bike in heavy rainstorms like this, he said.

So have I--- and it sucks ~ let me give you a ride. I am trying to steal little moments of time 

before he heads off on his journey to do a portion portion of a cross country bike ride tomorrow.

But seriously-- I did not want him being struck by lightening either.

Besides, I had put together a top notch bag of travel stuff for him. It had to be compact to fit in 

the Pannier (bike) bags, but none of those lame ass prefab First Aid kits that really don't have

the stuff you need.

We are talking the extra large & regular sized bandaids, Neosporin, Bug bite gel... all kinds of

misc stuff. In this last week we got him to the store for a compact sleeping bag, a one person 

tent. Threw in an ensolite pad, and a emergency blanket tarp for under the tent & a bag 

of bungee cords to strap all this stuff on.

He is *ready to roll*.

Anyway he made it safely to the workplace, but now the rear windshield wiper.... which

accidentally got turned on while the bike rack was on, rendering it dysfunctional.... was now  

flapping wildly at high speed & would not turn off. Damn.

I was on a run to Trader Joe's for Coffee. A huge BOOM if thunder shook the ground & my 

vehicle & for a few minutes TJ's went black.

Got the coffee & stuff & headed out. Noticed streetlights in busy intersections were stuck on

blinking red lights only.

Apparently some power grids had been effected. In fact I am typing on battery mode right now,

choosing to not be plugged in to electricity in this storm!

On the way home, the rains picked up.... pretty heavy when all of the sudden the driver's side 

windshield wiper torks itself out and flips beyond the windshield & is kind of stuck on the

rearview mirror.

Great! I'm driving on the freeway at 55 MPH in a heavy downpour & I can't SEE.  

The passenger side wiper is still humming along, so I wind up driving slower & leaning all 

the way to the right to see out of the passenger window.

This is on a van on a truck frame, so we are not talking compact car.... I am having to really 

s-t-r-e-t-c-h to see out the damned window.

Thankfully, the next exit is mine. I purposely drive slow to catch the stoplight. I can now get

out of my car & manually move the wiper so I can see. When I do, thunder & lightning are

booming & flashing. At this point I dare not ask *What next*... sometimes it is better to not 

tempt fate in this way. So I lay the broken wiper back flat like it is supposed to be- still raining 

and I get stopped at another stoplight.... another boom of thunder & flash of lightening. 

So now as I am driving suddenly the other windsheld wiper begins to flap back enough to take

the metal of the broken wiper and twist & bend the metal into a curly bent metal loop.  

At this point, I am now both a little scared, because it is still raining like crazy, and I can't see,

but I am half laughing, saying this is un*fucking* believable.

Seriously? 

What next-- Locusts??

Was it not bad enough the wiper tweaked itself on the freeway, but now it is all crunched into

a not remotely usable item. Cue the song!