The Big Wet One

If you are a Facebook friend, you already have a clue about what's coming next.

The story begins at around 9 PM last night.  I assumed it would be cool enough to get that walk in and maybe see some things in the gloaming.  What I hadn't seen was this:

Note the time stamp...

So off we went.  The are wasn't humid per se, but it was heavy... hard to breathe.  Especially when you are 1 foot tall, going through buckhorns taller than you, and aren't smart enough to turn off your sniffer for a few minutes.  Nonetheless, we made it to the soccer fields and thence across to the woods.

Just starting to get dark.

Lotsa lightning bugs!

If anything, the air was even worse in the woods- no air movement.  Scrappy seemed to be struggling.

By the time we went down the back side and back into the woods, it was even darker.

Some people might say it was getting creepy, but not us.  Any of our friends who might jump out and scare a person were nowhere around.

There were creepy new fungi...

...and bats!

However as we cleared the woods down Dead Tree Lane, I saw the FIRST thing I didn't want to see...

 

 

Yup, that looks like a storm coming!  So we were gonna cut up along the lane beside the soccer fields, when I saw the second thing I didn't want to see...

...a skunk!

 

Worse, Scrappy saw him, too!

 

 So now I have to change course, take the longer way to the road, pull Scrappy from trying to go after the skunk...

...and the wind hits.

And I'm not talking a pleasant breeze.  No, this was 41 gusting to 63 mph, grab yer hat, is that rain or dust coming towards us, run for your life wind- so strong it rolled up my sleeve!

  By the time we hit the Plex, it had slowed a bit, but the rain was starting.  We had 750 feet of parking lot, 975 to the fence line, and a third of a mile home.  No problem!

So we took off running (imagine that, Juli) and just as we started the rain REALLY let loose, and threw in the occasional lightning bolt just for fun.  Scrappy could only run for about 5 seconds without slowing to shake, and at about the 700 foot mark I was so out of breath I was contemplating what a nice wet corpse I'd make.  We finally made it to the fence line...

...pouring behind us...

...pouring ahead of us.

What's worse, the wind kept shifting so that no matter where we were in the fence row, we were getting poured on!  So after just long enough to catch our breath, I took off my now-less-than-useless glasses and we ran the remaining 800 feet for home... albeit a lot slower than we did the first 700 feet.

Click on Scrappy to see just how wet he really is.

How I managed to have one dry sleeve, I don't know.  God knows nothing else was!

By morning, my shorts were almost dry, hat and shoes still damp.  Scrappy is dry, but he was still wet- even after toweling off- two hours later when Laurie got home.  My legs told me on no uncertain terms what they thought of running- the rest of the night, going from sitting to standing was a two-attempt deal, and the first step upstairs one knee buckled.  The second step, the other knee buckled.  And by halfway up, my back was trying to convince me to try slithering up.  But a night's sleep and all is good as new.  And I can breathe without coughing again!