A funny thing happened on the way to the cake shop.
I mean, at least I got cake out of the deal. Mini bundts, to be exact.
I headed to the city in the early afternoon to pick up two online orders – one a birthday cake surprise, one the usual groceries. Traffic seemed a mite heavy for midday this far out in the boonies. A slow, possibly nervous left lane driver turned out to be the culprit, causing the general driver sentiment on the freeway to reach the category of Annoyed for miles. And miles.
I didn’t recall storm warnings from my last forecast check or walk-by the news. Late August hot and humid so always a chance of late afternoon thunderstorms I had in mind. The look of the sky, though, said storm warning.
Hmmm. Wonder if I’ll hit rain or if it will skirt north. Or if it will just look threatening but not really do anything.
I hit rain.
And then heavy rain.
Right after most of us had managed to navigate around Mr. Nervous Nellie and get back up to the speed limit.
So I slowed back down. Oh well, I’ll pick the things up when I pick the things up.
And the sheets of rain came down. Walls of rain. Tidal waves of rain. Buckets and cats and dogs and flying cows.
At least my car was getting a good wash.
I glanced at the display panel. The outside temperature had dropped fourteen degrees. I wondered if the barometric pressure had dropped to the lowest level since the Blizzard of ’78.
I settled in for a few more miles of what had turned into a harrowing drive. Hoping I’d be able to see anyone in front of me going super slow. Hoping I’d be able to see anyone who felt the need to pull onto the berm and stop for a while.
A souped up red sport car I’d been sharing the road with passed me. It was quite a few car lengths ahead, but still visible, when suddenly it was perpendicular with its tail end headed for the median.
One of those scenes it takes your brain a second to process.
I slowed way down.
Red sports car dude appeared to be safely parked in the grass in the edge of the median after his spinout. No harm, no foul as best I could tell. Other than to people’s blood pressure.
Hmmm. Life really can change in an instant.
And the world keeps spinning. And sometimes that includes cars and people.
