Rain Rain go Away
I just emerged from my 3rd flash rainstorm of the day. Yes, third. Not the third of the day, the 3rd I've been caught in.

#1: I stayed in my apartment 10 minutes after I wanted to leave waiting for the rain to abate. It was clearly going to, just drifting in and out. And my umbrella was (I thought) in my car. So I waited. And then I started to walk to the car when there was no rain. Right. It started when I was about 5 steps out the door, not wimpy rain but rain that falls so hard it hurts your skin (and no, it wasn't hail, it was rain). By the time I got in the car, 2 blocks away, I was soaked.

#2: I arrived in Hyde Park 40 minutes later still slightly wet and more than a little shaken from the near-invisibility of the first part of my commute. Luckily, however, it was raining only lightly, the heavier rain didn't seem to have traveled south with me. By the time I had parked in the garage and ascertained that my umbrella was not actually in my car it was pouring again. I hovered in the doorway for a while before giving in. At work Gil, the building janitor, offered to give me an umbrella from the lost and found. I thanked him, but said I thought I had one somewhere. And besides, I'd already been caught in the rain twice...

#2.5: This doesn't count since I didn't get out of the car, but I had to stop at the drugstore. I figured I'd stop at the one in hyde park on my way home so I could get some water and perhaps cure my splitting headache before spending 30 minutes on the road. As I pull into the parking lot, however, it starts to pour. Not feeling particularly like a fish, I pull out of the lot and get on the highway. It continues to rain. We're not talking wipers on level 2 rain, no we're talking so-heavy-you-can't-see-the-road rain. Heavier-than-an-automatic-carwash rain. And then, around Fullerton ave. it let up. Completely and totally. Awesome.

#3: Like that was going to last. I pull into Osco: drizzle. I open the car door. CUE POURING AS IF UNLEASHING THE GODS' FUROR ON HUMANITY. cue sprint to Osco. Where I picked up what I needed and was subjected to the 12 year old boy in line behind me's running commentary, which somehow included a really bad I-am-pretending-to-be-an-old-man-so-I-must-hunch-raise-my-voice-squint-and-wave-an-imaginery-cane impression. Some of the things I were getting were things 12 year old boys shouldn't be allowed to see, which made me even more annoyed by his general hyperactivity and bounciness as I tried to maneouver out of his line of site. I also bought an umbrella. Which only sort of helped me stay dry-I had to close it before I got in the car, and got re-soaked. And then parking by my house the puddles are so deep, the rain so heavy, and the night so dark that I had to park by sense of smell (well, touch really, but don't tell my neighbor's hummer that). The puddles cover the curb, which meant some creative jumping around. ARGH.

On the upside, it was nearly 70 again today and is currently 66. That combined with the thunder and lightning makes it feel like a cool evening in late august instead of early november.
- posted by Heidi @ 6:48 PM