Rain, Rain, Go Away (Oh, it did!)

Yesterday morning as I got into the truck, our local NPR host was saying there was a 60% chance of rain. I quickly weighed going back inside for an umbrella, but thought that I'd take my chances with just my "Library Raid" jacket.

And, well, you saw the photo.

So I left the library at about 9:15pm. According to my student assistant's account, and the fact that the library fountain had drained a bit, the weather must have died down considerably. Which is frightening, given my experience.

I walked out of the library doors and turned directly into the face of the wind. The driving rain and wind was so gusty that it was hard to walk forward, and my poor new leather sneakers were submerged in a number of puddles/lakes as I made my way toward the parking lot.

Several times I almost fell over just from the force of the wind, so when I got to my truck, I kind of hurled my body inside. I sat there panting, assessing the damage. My jacket was soaked, so I peeled it off. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the side-effect of the driving force of the rain was that the back side of my body was completely dry. In stark contrast to my soaked front. Also my feet were bone-dry--I may have soaked my new shoes, but in doing so proved that Sketchers leather sneakers are about the most waterproof shoe short of galoshes. (And galoshes don't match my wardrobe.)

And then I discovered that the force of the rain had driven my right contact up behind my eyelid.

Leave aside for the moment that 1) this always grosses me out and 2) it's painful; my primary concern was that 3) I couldn't drive home with my dominant eye unaided. I sat. I blinked. I rolled my eye around while looking in the mirror. I prodded my eye with my finger.

Finally, I made the extremely foolhardy decision to start up the truck and see what happened. I backed up, and put the truck into drive--and the contact fell into place. There was some "oh praise GOD" uttered at that point, and I drove home.

The way home involved a lot of rain, blinding lightning, thunder peals that cut out my radio station momentarily, and all the other things that happen when a storm travels the same direction as you. I got home to find Alex holding the door open and warming the oven for chicken nuggets.

And my shoes are fine now, miraculously. Sketchers done good!

My thanks to Tihleigh for her phone message offering a place of refuge in Denton. Had I realized how bad it was earlier, I may have taken you up on that offer.