The Rainmaker Cometh

I have a rather well deserved reputation for making it rain. In fact Hubs jokes that no drought is powerful enough to sustain against the pull of me behind the wheel. If I'm driving, better batten down the hatches. I have often considered a career of short term consulting in say--sub-Saharan Africa. That would be goldmine. Of course it would have to be short term because pretty soon they would have to start building arks. And no, I didn't pick that local just to get away from the kids---probably not. Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah, if you think I'm kidding, 4 out of the last 4 extended road trips we've taken have involved me driving through hurricanes, and tornadoes. True, it was technically "hurricane season" but we were in Kentucky and Tennessee. Not exactly meccas of hurricane activity. It can be a perfectly sunny, cloud-free day, perfect for making good time, I get behind the wheel and WHAM! The clouds roll in, the sky turns black, or green, or both. The lightning sparks ever closer and the thunder booms. Most other cars pull off the road and let me pass and pray the weather follows me quickly. If you think I'm kidding, I am, sort of. But I'm exaggerating much less than usual. I actually do have a reputation in the family for being the fore bearer of all things stormy. Not exactly fair since I am such a calm, mellow, happy person. Please try not to choke on that comment. I know, I should post warnings of potential gag moments.

So I should know better. Should being the key word there. But I didn't. Yesterday I pulled Hub's car out of the garage and left it running for a few minutes to charge the battery. Meanwhile I laid out all the left overs from the garage sale on the floor so I could inventory it and take a quick snapshot before dumping, I mean generously blessing others, at Goodwill.

Of course the camera didn't work. Of course out of all the PILES of batteries I have AA was the only size I didn't have. Of course. Grrrr. So I drove down to the Tom Thumb at the corner. It is less than three miles. IT WAS SUNNY! By all that I hold sacred, I SWEAR IT WAS SUNNY! By the time I left the convenience store, after my second mortgage for the batteries was approved, the rain was coming down by the bucket-fulls and it was HAILING! in FLORIDA!!! In MAY!

I flew back to the house (Scotty! I've got to have more speed!!!) and all I could think about was how we'd dropped most of the auto coverage while he was gone. Oh dear Lord, he's never gonna believe this story! So I FLEW home and manged to shove the junk aside and pull into the garage before the hail hit. Err, mostly. I'm pretty sure those dents were already there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Who wants to take a road-trip???