Friday, June 13, 2008

Avoiding the Rain

Last Friday, before I left work, there was a tornado warning. While it was uneventful where we were, the rain was coming down very hard. I always bring two umbrellas with me, both of which I had conveniently left in my car. It was around five, and I couldn't afford to wait it out, since we had to pick up a weekend guest at the airport.

Since I needed to leave and yet it was still raining hard, I came up with a plan. It was a brilliant, complicated, well-though-out plan; I decided that I would quickly bolt the short distance between my workplace and my car.

It worked effectively enough: my shirt was barely wet when I got to my car. The only minor oversight I had made was the large volumes of water that had become a lake in the parking lot. So severe were the puddles that I didn't even notice that it wasn't just the parking lot itself. While the run was short, my pants were soaked after the first step into that mess.

Later that weekend, on Sunday afternoon, there was another tornado warning. This time, I was at home already, with Katy and her visiting Gram. So, while I was able to avoid getting wet due to the rain, the storm caused a power outage that lasted until Monday.

I went out and bought ice as soon as I called the power company and learned that it wasn't scheduled to be repaired prior to Wednesday (they were wrong). When Kendra returned home, we transported our frozen goods to various freezers distributed across the city.

First, we stopped at my workplace and filled the freezer there. Fortunately, all the ice cream had been purchased and had not yet been replaced, so there was plenty of space.

Next, we ran to the church where Kendra volunteers and were able to find space for a couple items in one of their extra fridges.

We found a home for the rest of the stuff at a friend's who still had power and was kind enough to share their freezer space with us.

So, last weekend started with me getting all wet and ended with a rushed transportation of food. While it could be thought of as annoying or irritating, it didn't really bug me. I was amused by my saturating oversight and the lack of power and finding a temporary home for our food was a mini adventure of sorts.

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