Sunday, July 12, 2009

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!

4 comments:

Dada said...

Wow -- that is pretty scary, hurtling down the fwy blind! Glad you made it home ok. Knowing that, your imagery was funny (just a little bit, ok?) Very appropriate song selection!

Hmm...wasn't the country fair this weekend? (Just wondering if they got drenched too .....

Fran said...

I'm sure when the wiper went AWOL, I had a *Noooo- this is not happening wrapped together with a "You've GOT to be kidding" reaction.

Today is the sentencing trial for one of the people who assaulted my son-- so my Knight in shining armor Mr. Rambings offered to trade cars--- with a 20% chance of precip, he can wait it out, whereas we need to be on time.

Yes, the Country Fair got not only the heavy rains, but the thunder & lightening storm. It rained heavy for a few hours. On Saturday, I had asked Mr. Ramblings if he wanted to go on Sunday (one has to buy tickets in advance through Ticketmaster).... he said he was not in the mood. So we commented about how we were glad we had not spent $36 bucks for 2 tickets, as we drove home in the mega downpour. The OCF turned into a muddy, mucky mess.

enigma4ever said...

wow...yeah- not the norm there at all...ouch...take care...

Fran said...

So now I can only drive the beast when it is not raining.