September 2/13

This afternoon, we fled the apartment briefly and headed for the Market, the only place where things would be open today. 

As an aside, I really miss being out west where a lot of places are open on holidays.  I know the arguments, about hourly staff having to work, etc. and I've worked my share of holidays in retail, and I know it sucks, but at least I was raking in the time and a half (or on some occasions, double time), so I put aside the suckiness and enjoyed having the extra cash on hand when needed (and it's always needed!).

Anyway, before we even left, we were both aware, courtesy of the Weather Network App, that storms were heading our way.  Hell, the app even told us that we should expect the show to start after 3 pm.  So when we walked out into the darkening skies, we both had our umbrellas.  I'm from Vancouver...if the weather forecast tells you there's a high probability of rain, you bring the umbrella or a rain jacket. 

Well, we were among the only smarty-pants in the Market apparently.  At 4 pm, when we were in Road Trip, and the sales girl was talking to me and another customer about how scared she is of storms and that she didn't bring an umbrella.  She gestured at mine and told me I was smart.  Excuse me for sounding arrogant, but duh.  We were just about to walk out the door when the sky opened up and all meteorological hell broke loose.  Nature turned on the fire hose, and for good measure, put on a hell of a light and sound show too.  At that moment an enormous flash of lightning and booming crack of thunder let us know the storm was directly over head.  It made a family of four walking by actually jump and they bolted into the store, but not before the youngest girl freaked out and ran elsewhere, causing the parents to have to run after her and bring her in, already soaked after 10 seconds in the rain.

Etienne and I just looked at each other, said, "We have umbrellas", and walked out into the chaos.  While our feet and legs got wet, the rest of us was quite dry and comfortable, and seriously, only hip-waders would have protected our legs at that point.

Storms amuse me, not just because of the awe they inspire, but also because I just can't believe how many people I see unprepared who then seem so surprised when these storms actually happen.  As predicted.

You silly, soaking wet souls...

...Wish you were here.