Sunday, April 6, 2008

Rainy Day Driving

I spent most of today driving around town, either taking a child somewhere or picking a child up from somewhere. Sarah had a birthday party to attend at the Bay Area Renaissance Festival (BARF for short) at noon. Since we hadn't had a chance to shop for a card or gift before today, we had to do that this morning before the party.

It was nice and sunny when we woke up this morning. Phil even suggested that maybe the cold front had already passed and that we wouldn't get any rain today. But by the time Sarah and I left to go shop and drive to the BARF for the party, the clouds had already started rolling in and the sun had gone into hiding for the day.

When Sarah and I arrived at the BARF, it hadn't started raining yet, but I could tell it was about to start. Unfortunately, I didn't have any sort of rain gear in the car for when it started raining. I was just hoping that I'd get lucky and not get rained on.

I wasn't so lucky, though. We had to walk quite a way from where we parked to the entrance of the BARF, and not long after we left the car, it started sprinkling. Not so bad, though. I could handle that. But the further we walked, the harder it rained, and by the time we finally made it to the entrance, we were completely soaked.

Sarah's friend's mother had brought a bunch of umbrellas with her (that's a woman who thinks ahead!) and we quickly got under them when we located their group. She even lent me one of the umbrellas to use to get back to my car. Thanks so much, Stephanie!

Once I made it home, I quickly stripped and threw my clothes into the dryer. I also had to empty my Vera bag and throw it in the dryer, too, because it was soaked as well. Once everything was dry, I redressed and headed back out to pick Emily up from her friend's house where she had spent the night.

The rain still hadn't started in my area of town, so it wasn't a bad drive to get Emily. After I picked her up, we went to Target to return a few things and look around a bit. When we were walking back out to the car, the rain finally found its way to our area, and it started sprinkling on us. By the time we got our purchases into the trunk and got in the car, it had started pouring.

When I got home and went into the house, I told Phil that I shouldn't have put the same clothes back on because they obviously attract rain. Since Colin was here, we had to head back out into the rain to drive him home shortly after Emily and I got home so that we could make it back to town to pick Sarah up from the BARF by 6:00.

So we drove for what seemed like forever to get Colin home (he lives an hour away without the rain) through pouring rain. It seemed like everyone else on the road was either driving too slow or way to fast. It was still pouring when we made it back to town to pick Sarah up.

It was dinner time when we got Sarah, so we stopped at TGIFriday's for dinner. (I finally got to use that GC you gave me, Ann!) It continued to rain all through dinner and was still raining on the way home. While driving on the interstate, we saw a couple of cars who had lost control and run off of the road. One of them had even slammed into the guardrail. Thankfully, we didn't have such problems and we made it home in one piece, even if we were a bit wet.

The forecast for tomorrow is for a dry day, with possible showers in the evening. I hope it's correct because I have to get up early to take Sarah to a doctor appointment, and then we have some errands to run and shopping to do. I don't think I could take another day of driving around in the rain.

3 comments:

Heather said...

Aye, the rain has been crazy. I was very happy we had nowhere to go today! Sorry you weren't so lucky!

Debbie said...

Luckily, we avoided the rain...even when I had to run to Publix for a few items for the week...It had just started sprinkling and about 5 or 10 minutes after I came home, it downpoured. Everything is so wet right now...Hopefully the sun will come out and drive everything, but if its suppose to rain again, Oy Vey!!!

Working Mama said...

What a scary driving day, huh? I actually have always liked running errands in a light rain but add children to the mix - not so fun...add any sort of deadline/timeframes to be somewhere or pick someone up by - I start to greatly dislike it. I am glad you were safe & let's not do that again!
Andrea