5:01 p.m. - 2004-07-08
It was a Dark and Stormy Night
Good Freakin' Lord. What is it with me and severe weather?
I went down to B'ham Tuesday to help Wendy with a mailing, and when I left the sky was beautiful and sunny. I was actually looking forward to the ride home, driving and daydreaming, tralala....
I got to Cullman (yes, Cullman, the world's largest natural Tesla Coil) and the sky suddenly looked horrifying. Clouds so heavy, thick and black they looked as though they would collapse downward at any moment. A big, wet, thick cloud blanket. There was lightning in the distance.
I pulled into a rest area and called Bruce. There was a band of thunderstorms going through, he said, but it looked fast moving. I could probably stay put for awhile and keep going when it blew through.
I called Wendy. Was the weather from Birmingham the same? It was.
I sat at the rest area, collecting my thoughts. Should I keep going? It looked bad. Very bad. Should I go back to Birmingham and stay with Wendy? It looked too bad for that, as well. Should I just stay at a hotel?
Damn. I hated to spend the money. Even more, I hated to sleep without Bruce. Call the guy an addiction, I just can't sleep alone.
So after an hour of crashing thunder and wild lightning, it seemed to have calmed down. I nervously got back in the car and took off down the highway.
It was miserable. My windshield immediately steamed up, and stayed that way. It didn't rain hard, but it didn't stop either, just a steady drizzle.
And what is it about truckers in the rain? Does bad weather bring out their inner urge to run tiny Toyotas off the road?
At one point, there was a truck ahead of me, a truck next to me, a truck behind me, and a truck pulling onto the highway. All of them going 80 miles an hour.
"Hear me Jesus!" I yelled. "I don't wanna' die!!"
He must have heard. I came through alive, though I think I pissed off the truckers with my wimpy 60 mph driving.
And all through this there was the most fantastic lightshow in the sky. Amazing cloud to cloud lightning going from one end of the horizon to the other. If I hadn't been all alone in a little car with steamed up windows, I would have maybe enjoyed it.
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